Deva 01: Path of Vengeance
by Daishi Prime
Summary: Deva Series 01. Set after A's. Nanoha and her friends are all that stands between the TimeSpace Administration and a traitor bent on destruction. Are they strong enough to stand against him?
1. 00 Conflict

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Disclaimer – I have no claim to ownership of this series or its sequel (on which this story is based). I just enjoyed both and didn't like the idea of not knowing what happened to the characters later on. I do, however, claim credit for the character of Akira.

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Prologue – Conflict

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Nanoha spun to a stop in mid-air, Raging Heart ready in her hands, aimed back where she had just come from. She pulled in energy at a fast rate, pouring it through Raging Heart's systems, "Divine Buster Barrage," she ordered, normally soft voice grown harsh with exhaustion, not even noticing the circles and glyphs which manifested as her power shaped itself to her will.

Her target was face to face with Fate, Bardiche braced against his vile sword, and apparently unaware of her. The two broke apart, then slammed together again, exchanging fast, furious blows that Nanoha was hard-pressed to track. Finally, she felt her power peak, Raging Heart ready in her hands. "Shoot!" Mentally, she shouted a warning, _Fate-chan!_

With a thunderous roar, five bolts of focused magic flashed from their positions around her, covering the distance between her and him in a moment. Fate spun away at the last moment, and there was a massive explosion. Nanoha did not drop her guard, she had hit him with this before to no effect, and knew he would be coming out of it in a moment. She was already charging another strike.

She and Fate had been fighting him for what seemed like hours, now, Yuuno and Arf supporting them. The Knights were regrouping, preparing for the second wave of attacks, but Fate and Nanoha had to hold him for a little longer, until the damaged _Asura_ could arrive with Chrono and the squads of combat mages he had gathered from Headquarters.

_Nanoha,_ Signum's mental voice was strained, all the more serious because of it. _Shamal, Vita and I are on the way, but it will be several minutes._

Nanoha nodded, even though the others were too far, across dimensional barriers, to see her. It was a sign of how tired she was, that a corner of her mind recognized even as she responded, _I know. We're doing the best we can to hold him here, but he's too strong!_

_Call Excelion,_ Signum ordered,_ Fate, call Zanber._

Nanoha felt the blood drain from her face, and her answer echoed Fates, _NO!_

_We can't risk killing him,_ Fate elaborated.

_You can't risk loosing him, either,_ Signum's voice was grimly steady, _or losing to him._

_But Hayate-chan..._ Nanoha tried to argue, but she knew Signum was right.

_Would not thank us if you died trying to avenge her._

Nanhoa bowed her head, understanding. _Fate, I'll call Excelion, then take over distracting him while you call Zanber._

_Understood,_ Fate answered, charging in to attack their enemy again.

_We'll be there as soon as possible,_ Signum promised.

"Raging Heart!" To her surprise, her voice sounded stronger and more confidant then she felt, "Set up, Excelion!" The staff in her hand shook as three cartridges fired off in rapid order. Then the asymetrical curve wrapped around the massive jewel of her device shimmered, and disintegrated. The power flowing into and through the device trebbled, and Nanoha focused on controlling it, on forming the Excelion. It took only a moment, and Raging Heart settled into her most devestating form.

_Nanoha! Behind you!_ Yuuno's cry was paniced.

She spun, Raging Heart before her, "Circular..." A harsh clang of metal and a jarring wrench at her hands cut her off. She cried out in surprise, falling back a few feet but keeping herself in the air. Then she realized Raging Heart was no longer in her hands, and hovering inches before her face was the tip of a massive black sword.

Yuuno was screaming now, verbally as well as mentally, _Nanoha!_

His voice was grating, freezing cold, and laden with sadness and hatred, the ring of sigils surrounding his sword blacker than she had seen in six years. Over the blade, she could see his eyes, blank and uncaring. "Soul Breaker."

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**Author's note:** an idea I had, that I have outlined, but not written. It'll be expanded as I have time, but my other major story, Rise of the Guardians, has priority, barring feedback to the contrary. This one should be just as complicated as RotG, however.


	2. 01 Awakening

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter One – Awakening

Two Weeks Earlier

Vita threw another of the thieves onto the heap, his unconscious form landing without awakening. "This is pathetic," Vita cried, "None of them were even a challenge!"

"Admiral Chrono did warn that these opponents were not up to our usual standards," Shamal said, simultaneously expanding her binding to include Vita's latest prisoner.

Hayate put her hand on Vita's shoulder, "You know why we got this mission, Vita. He wasn't trying to insult us, he wanted this over before it became a situation that _required _us."

"I know," Vita answered, crossing her arms and sulking, "But I haven't fought anything tough enough to take a beating in ages! When are we going back to Earth, so I can fight Nanoha again?"

"Vita," Hayate put a whole lecture into the Knight's name, then turned to Shamal. "Is that everyone?"

Shamal considered the pile of unconscious bodies before her, a double handful, all wrapped in the green magical chains of her bindings. She counted them carefully, frowning, then shook her head, "I do not believe so, Mistress. Chrono's reports indicated twenty-two members of this gang, and I have nineteen prisoners here." A moment later, her mental voice rang in their heads, _Signum, how many do you have?_

_Three,_ came the immediate response. _Two are disabled, however the third has some interesting protections against bindings. I am studying them in action before capturing her, but will not be long._

_Thank you, Signum,_ Hayate said. "Vita, would be willing to you go collect her prisoners, please?"

Vita sighed theatrically, "Sure, sure." A moment later, she was flying out of the hanger, down the passageway Signum had followed when they first split up to search.

Hayate watched her go, then turned to Shamal. "I will go through the north wing and search for the Lost Logia they stole. Zafira, will you please take the south end?" The Shield Guardian nodded, turning to pad away on silent feet.

Shamal, having expanded her binding with ease, asked, "Are we taking it back to headquarters?"

Hayate shook her head, "No, I don't think so. Chrono said something about returning it, which makes sense. The world they stole it from has a large number of magic-users, and the Bureau wants to establish better relations, I think. There were already officers attempting to negotiate its sale when it was stolen, returning the Lost Logia and continuing those negotiations will establish good relations. It is inactive, as well, so it's probably not dangerous. I'll be back in a little bit." She turned and began walking down a different passage from that Vita took.

The facility was very large, but age had taken its toll. In decades past, it had been a Time-Space Administration Bureau research and monitoring facility, part of a network of such bases which allowed the Bureau to keep watch over the fabric of reality. While nothing approaching the size and complexity of Headquarters, this facility was still substantial, as big as any building Hayate could remember seeing in her home country, or even her home world. Tens of levels stretched out over an area the size of a baseball stadium, with one hangar large enough for Bureau warships, and several more, such as the one Shamal was using as a temporary prison, for smaller craft. Most of its space had been occupied by machinery, with a relatively small area given over to the crew who had monitored the surrounding space.

Now, however, the facility was mostly empty, filled with strange echoing spaces and collapsed sections. More than thirty years ago, the Bureau had moved out of the facility, when they shifted their organizational emphasis to more mobile ships, such as Chrono's _Asura_. Most of the equipment had been removed as well, too sensitive or useful to leave behind, but some items had simply been left in place. When they had converted it to their own ends, the small band of thieves Hayate and her Knights were here to capture had brought in their own power supply, but had not really changed much, simply moving into the abandoned crew spaces and ignoring the rest of the facility.

None of them had taken much time to look around, as of yet. They had barely been here twenty minutes, and most of that time had been spent localizing and securing the thieves. _Honestly,_ Hayate thought to herself, _Sending us after these people really was over-kill. One of us could have handled it, easily._

She had made that argument, in fact, while Chrono was briefing them. She had offered to do it herself, but her knights, and she smiled at the memory, had practically mutinied at the thought. Vita and Signum had offered, but Chrono had overruled them. He did not like sending out short teams, and had the dual excuses of a potentially powerful Lost Logia, and an unstable region of space with a track record of disappearances fit to make Earth's Bermuda Triangle look welcoming and safe. So the five of them had teleported from the Asura together.

She walked for a while, accepting Signum's report of completed captures absently as she checked room after room. Inactive Lost Logia could be damnably hard to track down, radiating little or no magical signal, so she had to carefully search each room. She had not expected it to be far from where the thieves had lived, but when she could find no trace nearby, she began searching deeper. She figured she was about halfway down through the facility when she felt the first trace of strange magic. It was a binding, a powerful one, but subtle and well camouflaged. Figuring that to be her target, remembering Signum's comment about her final suspect, Hayate began tracking it down.

She found it deep in the facility, approximately where Amy had said the power plant had once been located, a set of cavernous spaces filled with disconnected wires and junk. Even abandoned, the area remained heavily secured, not so much against intruders, as against the forces which had raged within, when the place had been operational. By the time she reached it, however, she knew it was not the Lost Logia she was searching for. She had to use Reinforce to slice through several meters worth of rubble in different places, strengthening others to be sure they would hold long enough for her return trip. This section of the base had obviously never been explored by the thieves living above.

At the very rear of the power plant, she found one more sealed door, and an exceedingly unpleasant surprise. _Shamal,_ She sent, considering her find uncertainly, _Someone died down here, a long time ago._ It took her a bit to get over her own shock, and begin to catalogue what she was seeing, but eventually she managed to explain, _It looks like he was an Bureau mage of some sort. His uniform is rather old, though, and I do not know most of these markings. I think he was an admiral, if the rank symbols haven't changed. It also appears he was trying to seal the door to the last chamber of the power section. I am going in to investigate._

Shamal was quite unhappy with that idea, _Hayate-san, shouldn't you wait for Signum? She and Vita can be there in a few minutes._

_I'll be fine, Shamal,_ Hayate was touched by Shamal's concern, but more than a little exasperated. She had demonstrated her own skill repeatedly, yet her Knights still tried to do anything more dangerous than the cooking themselves. _Whatever happened here, it was a very long time ago. I'll just be a minute._

The door had apparently been sealed once, but it had not lasted long. The traces of magic on the door were faint and weak, but even so it was apparent to Hayate that they had failed due to time, and had not been broken. Similarly, the hinges and latch had rusted shut, however. "Reinforce," Hayate ordered, raising her staff between herself and the door, "Welding Arc."

The holographic miniature of Reinforces' original form appeared, smiling brightly at Hayate, "Yes, Mistress!" Before she had finished speaking, a brilliant light appeared at the tip of the staff, before leaping out to slice into the door frame. It was a short-range beam, something Hayate had created after Zafira was trapped beneath a heavy structural beam on a mission. None of the others had been available, and more powerful attacks would have injured her unconscious Knight, so she had created this on the spot, a short-range cutting beam of energy. It burned through the door in a minute, Reinforce's image bouncing with child-like glee and giggling as she directed the beam.

When the metal plate fell into the room beyond, Hayate gave the glowing edges a moment to cool, stretching Reinforce through to light the room better, as its own lighting was dim and fading. The first thing she found were three more Bureau mages, in similar uniforms and conditions to the one she had found in the hall. Resolutely ignoring them, Hayate stepped into the room herself, and found the source of the magical energies she had detected so far above.

Floating in the center of the chamber, not twenty feet from her, was an enormous emerald crystal. It was more than twice her height, randomly faceted as if fresh from the ground, yet glittering in Reinforce's light with polished perfection. Encased within the center of it, eyes closed, face relaxed in a neutral posture, was a young man, older than Hayate, but not by much. He was dark haired, with pale skin weathered by sun and battle, a light scar tracing down his jaw. Like the dead mages around her, he was wearing an Bureau Mage's uniform, but where theirs were blue, his was a pure blinding white, and bore no insignia, not even the Bureau's crest.

Of more concern, now that she was within a few feet of it, she could sense the incredible magical energy built up inside the crystal. She was surprised it was holding together under that sort of stress, and rather interested in how the man inside was generating that pressure from within what was obviously a stasis containment of some sort. Unable to restrain her curiosity, she stepped closer, inspecting the massive crystalline prison closely. So when she tripped on the debris-strewn floor, the closest thing for her to grab to regain her balance was the crystal itself. She grabbed a jagged ridge, Reinforce's armor protecting her from its knife-sharp edges, and managed, barely, not to slam into the crystal itself.

The crack under her hand was audible nonetheless. Fractures appeared in the crystal, spidering away from her grip, and she gasped in surprise. The energy she had sensed built up within the crystal suddenly had a weak point to exploit, an avenue out, and it attacked that weakness instantly. She had a moment to mentally shout, _Signum! Run!_ Then, as the crystal exploded before her and dark power swept through her, she put everything she had into one last thought. _Reinforce! Teleport us out!_

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Signum was marching through the ruins herself at that time, following Hayate's path to where her Mistress was waiting. Signum was less than pleased that Hayate had gone off by herself, and intended to speak to the young woman rather firmly about it, but later. Right now, something was making her nervous, something was off about this base, and whatever her Mistress had found, Signum just knew it was dangerous. Zafira had found the Lost Logia, and even now Shamal was transferring it, and their prisoners, to the _Asura_'s holding bay. Vita and Zafira, almost as unhappy with Hayate's solitary wandering as Signum, were following the Sword Knight.

Signum figured she was nearing the bottom, when she heard her Mistress' voice. _Signum!_ The telepathic shout was filled with fear and surprise, and that was all she needed. _Hayate?_ _Mistress!_ Her response came fast, but remained unanswered. Her eyes grew wide, and she sucked in a breath in instant fear, then snapped "Levantine!" The sword in her right hand hummed, slamming back into her hand once as a cartridge discharged, and she swung it up to point before her, just to one side of a direct line to where she sensed her mistress. "Beam Cannon!" It was a borrowed attack, learned from Testarossa and more basic than Signum normally preferred, but she needed speed and raw strength right now, not finesse.

"Signum?" Vita's voice was surprised behind her, but not yet frightened.

Before she could say anything else, Signum finished her spell, and a ravening bolt of purple energy leapt from Levantine's tip, funneling wide into a blast of destruction that tore through the ruined base's structure. "Hayate's in trouble," Signum shouted, "keep this place from falling in on us while I open a passage to her!"

"Roger," Vita responded, but it was Zafira who's energies reinforced the structure around the tunnel Signum's attack was boring. "I've told Shamal, and Chrono. They're coming as well!"

A second later, Signum's beam cannon struck something else, a counter-veiling energy that blasted out in a wave. Her strike diverted the wave from herself and her companions, and the combined energies opened a passage she could use, so she leapt into the angled tunnel, heedless of the heat radiating off the slaged walls or the chilling cold of that new power. Vita and Zafira were right behind her, and she heard the distinctive clash as Vita's Graf Eisen loaded a cartridge of its own. Levantine triggered another cartridge before they were at the end of Signum's new tunnel.

The three of them broke free of the tunnel into what had been several ruined rooms, and was now a single open space of powdery rubble. Signum could still feel the energy which had countered her beam cannon radiating from the room, and knew instantly that the man standing in the center of the wreckage was its source. As the three of them spread out, flying overhead, he turned and looked at them. His pale face was set in a neutral mask, eyes shockingly green and clear even at this range, and at first, he barely seemed to acknowledge their presence.

"Where's Hayate!" Vita's demand drew his attention to her, "What did you do with our Mistress?"

His gaze did not change, and his voice was a flat monotone to match. "I know not of who you speak, child." He glanced at each of them again, shaking his head, "Aoi is still gone, none of you are the one I seek. Leave me."

Signum settled toward the ground. He was the source of whatever had happened to her Mistress, she knew it, could sense the power still radiating off him. She also knew Hayate was still alive, could feel her Mistress' energy, but not her location. Glaring at him, she demanded, "What did you do with Hayate?"

His gaze settled on her, and took a moment to inspect her. She did not care for that, but when his gaze settled on her waist, on the badge Chrono insisted they all wear, the first expression she had seen on him appeared. Hatred. "You work for the Bureau," he said slowly, a snarling quality creeping into his voice.

"Special Officers," Signum acknowledged, "And you know something of the..."

"I have something for you, then," he interrupted her, tone making his last two words an insult, "_special officer_." He extended his right arm, hand open, and when he spoke again, his voice was deeper, darker, and echoing with pain, "Darkness given form." Signum and Vita were moving before he finished the first sentence, both of them lunging forward from different directions. "Death given voice." Levantine and Graf Eisen were powerful in their own rights, even more so backed by the unreleased energies of the cartridges and the will of their users. "I call your presence to my hand," Signum fully expected their combined attack to destroy the still unidentified man before her, "your power to my service." The moment before impact, he finished his summoning, a single word rolling through her bones. "Hellblade."

The unmusical crash of metal on metal rang in Signum's ears, and her eyes widened in surprise. Levantine had stopped cold, the jarring crash transmitted through her hands and up her arms, the flash of neutralizing energies momentarily blinding her. The magically enhanced edge of her device had been met by the tip of another sword, blade colored by a shifting blackness that filled her with cold dread. Looking up the length of the sword, it was huge, a western-style blade, broad and double-edged, with an oddly fine bar guard, black from the tip holding Levantine, to the pommel blocking Graf Eisen. Only the grip was different, wrapped in blood red chord, two strands of which dangled off it as tassels.

He was holding his weapon in one hand, and when she found his face, was almost laughing at her. She knew she was letting too much show, giving away her shock, but she could not help it, and when he saw it, his smile grew wider. Then Zafira hit him from behind, a single punch slamming into his back, and his expression changed, slightly. He grunted in pain, catapulted from between Signum and Vita, anger returning full force.

The four of them spun around to face each other, Signum and Vita recovering stance and splitting up to cover against any move he made. The unknown man tumbled through the sandy remains of the power chambers, rolling to his feet in a crouch, still holding that massive blade in one hand. He snarled silently at them for a moment, then relaxed, rising to stand and giving them a superior smile. "I see someone's still teaching teamwork at the Bureau. That's good, that's very good. You kids might actually be able to challenge me, this time." He looked up, ignoring the tunnel and staring straight up through the rubble. "Tell your Bureau masters, puppets, that they're last group of slaves failed. Akira, the Breaker of Ships, the Great Traitor, is awake once more, ready to resume his march towards vengeance and death," He looked back down at them, "your deaths, in due course, s_pecial officers_. But I do not have the time to deal with you today, you are too far from the top of your form to be worth my while."

He spun the blade upright before him, finally taking it in both hands. Signum tensed when the blade swung, then realized he wasn't attacking directly, but casting. "Levantine! Snake form!" She whipped the suddenly expanding blade at him, aiming to bind his device, but she was a fraction of a second too slow.

"Cacophony of Torment," his voice, as when he summoned his device, was deeper and more powerful than before, almost that of another person entirely. He rammed the sword straight down, into a black disc that opened beneath it, and runes instantly formed about him, circular patterns of magical sigils absorbing what little light remained in the chamber. Before Levantine could reach him, hundreds more black discs appeared around him, a spherical pattern that interfered with her view of her target. Levantine's tipped vanished into one a moment before the spell completed.

Sound issued forth from those black discs, terrible, agonizing sound. Conflicting screams and cries, the sounds of thousands of tormented souls, swept over her, resonating through her armor, her bones, her very being. She had a moment to watch the last third of Levantine crack and shatter, but she could not hear it over the agonizing noise. She could do nothing but crouch down, cover her ears, and desperately try to build a barrier of some sort against that awful sound, and the tumbling debris as the roof caved in on her.

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It was several hours before _Asura_'s crew managed to dig their agents out of the wreckage, mostly due to the ship's own damages. While Amy had been unable to determine what, precisely, the mystery attacker had done to both bring the old facility down and escape its destruction himself, she had obtained very clear imagery of him. He appeared from a teleport beside the _Asura_, wrapped in a protective sphere of energy, launched a surprisingly precise attack on the ship's engines, and disappeared in another, longer-ranged teleport. Only Amy's fast reflexes and the Asura's automated damage-control systems prevented the engine from detonating, but the damage still left the ship on minimal emergency power for over two hours.

After an initial frantic reaction, however, Admiral Chrono managed to establish telepathic contact from beneath the rubble, calming nerves all around and bringing his crew back to order. He and Shamal were trapped together in a small pocket in the rubble. Most of his power was going into maintaining the pocket and keeping contact with Vita, Signum and Zafira, who he reported as alive but unresponsive. Shamal, to the crew's surprise, had apparently managed to track the attacker and was maintaining that contact for as long as she could.

Once the _Asura_'s systems were repaired enough to power the teleporter, Amy sent as many members of the crew as she could spare to the surface to dig out their missing mages, coordinating both operations. Chrono and Shamal were simple enough to reach, a few meters beneath the surface. Shamal was difficult to move, so deep in her trance that she was completely unresponsive to the world around her. The rescue team had to be extremely careful moving her, lest they break her trance and loose the attacker. Once she was safely placed on stable ground, however, Chrono left one medic to keep an eye on her, and turned back to digging the rest of the way into the rubble.

Even with the Admiral and his Durandel, reaching the wrecked facility's power room was a nightmare. Towards the top, the damage had simply been from structural collapse – underlying structures providing support to the upper layers stopped supporting, and thus the upper layers collapsed. Further down, however, the damage changed from simple structural failure to direct destruction. The lower they managed to dig, the smaller and smaller the fragments became, from human-sized pieces of concrete and steel, to torso sized, to fist sized, until finally they were dealing with pebbles and dust.

Chrono, throughout, directed and supported. Using Durandel's designed affinity for ice, he initially created instant ice-buttresses to hold unstable sections. As the debris became smaller, he started freezing it into larger chunks to simplify their removal. All the while, he maintained three slender threads of contact, trying to guide the rescuers as close to the three trapped Velka Knights as possible. Finally, as the local sun was rising on their second day on this world, the shaft the rescuers had dug reached the level of the old power plant's floor, and from there they soon had side passages to each of the trapped knights.

Vita and Zafira were unconscious, protected from the rubble by static shields. Those shields had not sufficed, apparently, to protect them from whatever the unidentified attacker did. Both of them were taken out by medics as quickly as possible and, once clear of the interference generated by the residual energies of the base, binding, and attacker, teleported directly to the _Asura_'s medical bay.

Chrono was unsurprised to find that, unlike the others, Signum was conscious. When they finally found the cavity she was in, she was curled up on the ground, Levantine's cracked and broken form still held defensively before her. The light from the rescuer's torches showed dried blood from her nose and ears, and staring wide eyes that glared at them through the shimmering silver barrier.

_Stay there,_ Chrono ordered, when he got her attention, _leave your barrier up until we can work ours in over it._

_Understood,_ Signum replied. _Vita, Zafira?_

Chrono waited a second, before realizing she wasn't going to ask about Hayate, usually her first concern. _Both unconscious, they've already been taken up to the Asura. Shamal's on the surface tracking whoever it was that did this. What's your condition?_

_Said his name is Akira,_ Signum replied,_ I'm not doing well. I can't hear, can't see anything but general shapes. Tried standing up, but can't balance. Levantine's damaged as well. _She paused for a moment, then ordered, _Get me out of here, I need to go after him._

Chrono shook his head, more in resignation than surprise, as he was well used to the Velka Knights by now. _We're working on getting you out,_ _Signum,_ he said, _but pursuing this guy is going to be difficult to impossible. _Asura_ is damaged, leaving us without a ship._

_He doesn't have one either,_ was her immediate response.

_So he can't get too far. Relax. We've almost got our barrier in place, after that you can drop yours and we'll get you up to the _Asura_, let the doctors have a look at you. Shamal is tracking him now, you'll need her information to find him again, so relax._

_I'll relax when I have Hayate back._

Chrono shook his head again, breaking off the contact to concentrate on getting Signum free of the wreckage. A routine recovery mission gone sour, one of his best mages missing in action, said mage's personal strike team seriously injured, and his ship badly damaged. _Who, or what, was that mage?_

Happosai-sama: Thanks for reading, though the prologue was a bit short. Watched the end of "A's", and just pictured the scene that became the prologue. The rest of this is developing from there (how'd she get in that fight? Who is 'he'? and so on). I'm not certain I'll be able to stay true to the feel of the series, I'm too dark & violent in my own mind, I think, but it'll be a good experiment, and I can always up the rating. Akira isn't evil for no reason, though – he's got a good one, but I'm hoping to keep exactly what that reason is to myself for as long as possible. As for when it's set – at the end of the last episode of "A's", there's an epilogue that shows them 'six years later', and this is set a couple of months or so after that, though I'm not sure I'll ever set the exact gap in stone. So, if I'm understanding the age/grade ranges in Japan correctly, Nanoha & Co. should be 16 or 17? That's the age I'm working off, anyhow.


	3. 02 Confusion

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter Two – Confusion

Elsewhere, Later

The first thing Hayate noticed was the sound. Wherever she was, the wind moaned and howled, mournful and frightening sounds, like the wind itself grieved. It was not freezing, but definitely cold enough to make her glad of Reinforce's armor. She was even more glad when she realized that she was laying on a heap of jagged stone rubble that was contained by four jagged columns. It took her a moment to realize that the columns were the only remnants of a building, the structure of the corners supporting themselves enough to last a little longer than the rest of the walls. Reinforce was lying on the ground nearby, the small spear-tip icon a vibrant gold at odds with the grey stone.

Her whole body felt like she had been sent through a dryer with a load of bricks, and her balance was uncertain, so she settled for crawling over to the device, gathering it into shaking hands. While nothing seemed broken or otherwise seriously damaged, and she could not see any sign of an injury, she nonetheless felt like one massive bruise. It took a feat of will to reach the device and take it in hand. "Reinforce," she whispered, "Set up."

For one heart-stopping moment, she thought nothing was happening. Then, softly, she heard Reinforce's response, "Yes, Mistress." A moment later, Hayate once again held her staff in her hand, the solid feel and resonance of power reassuring her more than words could express. She took a little while to simply lay there, hugging the staff to herself, drawing reassurance from its presence.

Using Reinforce like a crutch, Hayate managed to get herself vertical and relatively stable, despite the shifting mass of rubble beneath her. From there, it took several minutes of careful maneuvering and determined effort to reach one of the corner-walls, where she finally slumped, leaning against the stone more than Reinforce. Once there, her attempts to reach Signum, Shamal, Vita or Zafira all failed, a strange shifting energy distorting her telepathic attempts and reflecting them back to her.

Beyond the wall, when she gathered her wits enough to actually look, was a devastated wasteland. She could not see very far, for the heaps of rubble and wreckage, but there was nothing else. Low, heavy grey clouds, covered a grey expanse of ruined buildings, nothing more intact than the fragmentary wall she was now leaning against. Narrow, twisting streets served to separate one pile of rubble from another, though they were also torn up and strewn with debris. Everywhere, the only colors she could see were the grey of stone, and the brown of dry earth.

"This doesn't look good," she whispered. "Reinforce, where are we?"

The head of her staff glowed softly, and Reinforce herself appeared. The miniature hologram was looking around in confusion, more than a little fear on her face. "I don't know, Mistress. I can't locate any reference points. Something here is disturbing the magic, Mistress. I can't localize that, either."

Hayate sighed, then pushed herself off her support. "Let's find some higher ground, then, see if we can't find someone else. Maybe someone survived whatever happened here."

Slowly, carefully, she started walking. Even using Reinforce as a crutch, she was very slow, and had to stop frequently to catch her breath. She was soon wishing she had paid more attention to Shamal's lessons on healing, even if she did not yet have the fine control necessary for such effects. Learning to defend herself, and support her Knights directly, had seemed more important. "I'll have to fix that when I get home," she decided, after the third time she had to stop or collapse.

The twisting streets offered little room or line of sight, so she had trouble telling where she was going, or whether she was headed up hill or down. She was starting to give up on finding an observation point, when she rounded a bend and almost fell off a cliff. She caught herself with a choked off shriek, Reinforce's base actually catching a rock a foot below the cliff top when she thrust it out to catch herself, and struggled upright again.

Stretched out below her, across a bowl-shaped valley that had to be miles across, was a blasted cityscape. Behind her, circling the valley, towering mountains rose through the cloud cover, rough and intimidating. Below, perhaps a hundred feet, the base of the cliff was lost in windrows of rubble. From there, it spread across the valley, in drifts and heaps like old snow, save for the mass of the pieces. A few more partially intact walls appeared, and the twisting paths she had been following appeared to be somewhat wider below. However, the further towards the center her gaze traveled, the worse the devastation became. The pieces became smaller, the remains less frequent, and the heaps of rubble smaller.

Except, in the very center of the valley, a massive fortress brooded. It sat atop a pillar of stone, higher than the surrounding valley, almost as high as the cliff top she stood on. It was massively built, heavy concrete construction, narrow openings just big enough for an occupant to look out. It reminded her greatly of modern fortifications from her home world, though larger by far than anyone built any more. It was also pristine, at least in comparison to the ruin around it, untouched, not even chipped, as far as she could tell from this distance.

"Well, I guess we know what direction to head in," she muttered. "Reinforce, can you get a direction fix on that?"

Reinforce's hologram faded into view again, concentrating for a moment. Then she smiled and spun about in a circle. "Yep, yep, yep, direction fix, no problem!" The staff glowed for a moment, and Reinforce's swirling dance stopped, leaving her staring right at the fortress. The beam of light that leapt from the center of the cruciform headpiece was no surprise to Hayate, stretching easily across the distance to touch one wall of the fortress for a split second, then vanishing. "One thousand two hundred fifty eight meters," Reinforce sang, pointing at the fortress, "it should take us..."

Her report was cut off by a massive howl, sharper and higher than the wind. It rolled over the city, sending shivers through Hayate's bones, and causing Reinforce to shriek and hide behind herself. When it was over, Hayate shook herself out of her stunned immobility, "Looks like we have company after all," she said, frowning worriedly, "doesn't sound too friendly, though."

"I'm not detecting any life signs, Mistress," Reinforce whispered, "nothing at all."

Hayate sighed, shaking her head, "It's probably a construct, then. Automated defender of some sort. Well, we'll try to avoid it, shall we? Reinforce, Sleipnir's Wings, please."

------------------------------

The _Asura_, eight hours after Awakening

Chrono gathered his officers together in the briefing room once he had a handle on the situation. It had taken longer than he expected, longer than he would have preferred, but the situation was worse than he had at first thought it to be. Watching the men and women file in, most of them visibly tired from the emergency, he took note of their condition, and decided that the long ride home would be a good thing.

The only ones who did not appear tired were the three Wolkenritter, who as usual kept their emotions to themselves, projecting an air of repressed hostility towards all and sundry. Six years they had been working as probationary officers, and still they seemed to regard the Bureau, as much as anyone else, as the enemy. Only Hayate had ever gotten them to show their emotions, and only Nanoha, Fate, Arf and Yuuno were shown any sort of friendliness. Even he, who gave them their orders, sparred with them, and had fought beside them, was accorded only the minimum respect due his rank.

Once everyone was seated around the conference table, expanded since his mother's time in command, he cleared his throat for attention. "First, I want to thank all of you for your efforts to repair the ship." Which even Signum, in her injured state and stubborn determination to pursue Akira, had contributed to. "Thanks to that, we are much further along than I expected to be at this time, given the original damage reports. Let's begin with Giuliani's report on the condition of the ship."

Giuliani, the ship's engineer, nodded, and leaned forward. He knew everything on the data pad in front of him, but nonetheless read directly from it. "This guy, whoever he is, did a real number on us, sir. I haven't figured out how he got in through our shields, but he only hit us with three strikes, one in the engine, one to the power plant, and one to the regulators between the two. Caused a massive overload in the engine and power plant both. The last strike cut most of the automated safety systems as well." He paused, nodding to Amy, "Amy-san's quick reactions triggered the manuals in time, fortunately. Per your orders, we've focused on getting power back, and the plant's operational again as of two hours ago, though we can't get full power. The drive should be back in another two or three hours, but again, at less than fifty percent. I'm afraid we won't be able to get much more than that without a full repair facility. Odd thing is, other than that, the ship's fine, no damage, not even from the power fluctuations. In short, he got in some lucky hits, but we had our own luck."

Amy stirred, and when Chrono looked at her, she spoke in a surprisingly soft voice. "I don't think he was lucky, Captain." She nodded at Signum, "Thanks to Signum's report, I managed to identify him, and obtain a file from Headquarters." She stopped and tapped a command into her data pad. The display in the center of the table lit, as did the individual consoles at each station, and a moment later a profile picture appeared, a young man with dark eyes glaring out of the hologram. Data appeared beside the picture, most of it identification data. "Akira, he called himself, the Breaker of Ships and the Great Traitor. I couldn't find reference to the last, except for a few notes about past mages who turned on the Bureau, the last over a century ago. But Akira and 'Breaker of Ships' I found recently. The first record of him is twenty years ago, when he attacked a Bureau warship near this sector of space, the _Deva_. He wasn't identified then, because he destroyed it without hail or contact, he just attacked." She paused, a look of sorrow settling in for a moment, "the only survivor was the ship's captain, he was at Headquarters testifying on a prior mission.

"A month later, he ambushed another warship that was looking for him, which is the first time he was identified by name. He crippled that ship as well, getting aboard somehow and raiding its computers, before destroying it. He left two members of that ship's crew alive, we don't know why, but they are the ones who identified him and provided most of what we know of his techniques. After that, a pair of ships were detailed to hunt him down and bring him in to custody. Both were destroyed while in contact with Headquarters, which is where the rest of our information on him comes from. He crippled both ships in the same way he did the Asura, then used one to destroy the other."

Signum grunted at that, "He did not get lucky, Giuliani. He knew exactly where to strike for the effect he wanted."

Chrono nodded, "You think he really is a traitor, Signum? A former Bureau mage?"

She nodded, "Probably."

Amy shook her head, "No, he can't be. I haven't been able to match any personnel file, active or inactive, to his image or name. I can't even match his device."

"If he is a traitor, his file may be secured for an investigation," Chrono said, "I'll look into it, see if my clearances can turn something loose. Is there more to his history? Any word how he was sealed down there?"

Amy nodded, "After the dual loss of _Vishnu_ and _Excalibur_, three ships were specially assigned to a task group. The strongest mages available were gathered, and they and their ships spent two months training and refitting. All three were equipped with an Arc-en-Ciel. They disappeared a week after beginning their hunt for the fugitive, but Akira has not been seen since. The file is still open, because there was no confirmation of capture or death. Umm, that is what bothers me most about this, Captain." She tapped a few more commands, and the data beside Akira's image scrolled rapidly to the end. When she found what she wanted, she ignored the collective gasps and read off, "High Command Operational Directive, Alpha Priority. At first contact with the fugitive 'Akira' all Bureau personnel are authorized to attack at will. Authorization is granted to terminate subject at discretion of Bureau personnel."

Almost everyone at the table was staring at the order in shock. Only the four Wolkenritter did not seem to care. Chrono finally whispered, "An Op Directive to _kill_ him on _sight_? What in the world could cause High Command to issue that kind of order?"

Amy shook her head, "I don't know sir, there's nothing in the file to explain it, just the order. But there's also the fact that nothing is known of his techniques, except a few of their names."

"I think we can update the 'Cacophony of Terror,'" Vita muttered, reading the list separately, "but the rest of these... 'Brimstone Spear', 'Graveward', 'Soul Breaker', 'Crushing Blow of Hate'... He's not exactly happy, is he?"

Chrono shook his head at her understatement, "No, Vita, he is not, and those techniques, especially as we know almost nothing of them, is only one of my concerns. Since the Asura was the ship to encounter him, I've managed to convince Headquarters to assign pursuing him to us. Giuliani, please expedite your engine repairs, and see if you can't figure out how to prevent what happened before from happening again."

"Yes, Captain."

"Anything more on Akira, Amy?"

"No," she shook her head, "but I think that's more than enough. I hate to say it, Captain, but this scares me."

Chrono nodded in agreement, then turned to the Wolkenritter, "Signum, it's good to see you're up and around. How is your team?"

She leaned back, crossing her arms, "I am fine, Vita and Zafira have been for hours. Shamal is still drained and should be in sickbay." the blonde woman next to her made a protesting sound, but Signum carried on over her, "Levantine was the only device damaged, and his core systems are intact. He should have completed his repairs before we are mobile again. He will be ready to go long before we can catch this 'Breaker of Ships.' As for Hayate," She dropped her head, shaking it slightly, "We cannot be sure. We still sense her, but cannot locate her."

"If she is in another dimension," Shamal spoke, "we should be able to sense that. But it feels like she is still here, on this world, but not here." She hesitated, searching for a way to explain herself, "I do not know, but I do know she is still alive. We have to find her."

"Akira is our best chance for that," Signum stated.

"Agreed," Chrono said, "Which is one of the reasons I got us this mission. Shamal, any luck on tracking him?"

She nodded, "Yes, but I do not think we need to worry about finding him." When he gave her a curious look, she smiled slightly, "He is headed for Bureau Headquarters, or was when I lost contact with him. It will take him several days, however he is traveling, but that is where he is going."

Chrono stared at her in surprise, "Why would he go to Headquarters? He has to know we'll warn the Bureau he's coming."

"'To resume his march towards vengeance and death,'" Signum quoted. She snarled her next sentence, emotion finally showing through, "He is going to _die_, and take _Hayate _with him."

------------------------------

"Takamachi Nanoha, Testarossa Fate, please report to the principle's office immediately." The PA system cut into the teacher's lecture, surprising the entire class.

Miss Kishimoto looked at the speaker over the door, "Umm? What is that about?"

"Ano, sensei?" Nanoha was already putting her books in her bag, "I'm sorry, but..."

Miss Kishimoto waved the apology aside, "It's alright, Nanoha-chan. If they want you in the office, you better get going. You too, Fate-chan. I don't know why they want to see you two so often, you never do anything wrong! But, get going anyhow."

The two of them slipped out after suitable further apologies, heading for the office like the obedient students they still were. "What do you think is the problem now," Nanoha asked as they trotted downstairs.

"I don't know," Fate said, "but it must be serious, if they're pulling us out of class. Should I ask Mother?"

Nanoha shook her head, "We'll find out in a minute, but it's fun to try and guess. The reason is never the same twice, it's interesting."

Fate smiled, "Yes, I guess it is."

They reached the office, to find Lindy Hallaoun waiting for them. "Oh, girls, good," the retired admiral looked very concerned, "come with me, I've already cleared it." She lead the two of them out of the office, around a corner of the hallway. She took a hand from each of them, rubbing them nervously. "I... I'm don't know how to say this... Headquarters contacted me a short while ago. Something has happened to Hayate-chan. She's gone missing."

Nanoha could not believe her ears, "H... Hayate-chan?"

Lindy continued, "I'm so sorry, Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan. The Asura was damaged, so their report was incomplete, but someone attacked them, and appears to have imprisoned Hayate, somehow. Chrono and her Knights have been assigned to pursue him, but you are listed among her next of kin, so..."

Nanoha was in shock, struggling to realize that her friend could go missing so suddenly. Fate recovered faster, "Can we go to the Asura? Signum will need our help to find Hayate."

"Headquarters has asked for you to report there. Apparently, the one responsible is traveling to there, and they want you to help contain him. He is... dangerous. I remember when he was loose last time, I was much younger, before Chrono was born, and he is very dangerous. He did so much damage, but I think you girls can handle him."

"We'll get underway now," Nanoha said, pulling Raging Heart out of her blouse. She looked at Fate, "Headquarters? We can be there in an hour, through the new relay."

"Let's get Arf, first," Lindy said, "we'll need to get our travel packs, as well." Nanoha looked at her, ready to argue, but Lindy beat her to it, "He won't reach Headquarters for several days, Nanoha. An hour or so to prepare things here will not make a difference."

It took her a moment to nod, but she acquiesced. "Okay, Lindy-san. I'll go home now, get my pack. Should I meet you at your home, when I'm ready?"

"Yes, go ahead," Lindy told her, "I've already cleared it with the office, for both of you. Suzuka and Arisa will take notes and homework for you while you're gone. I'll tell them about Hayate-chan."

"Thank you, Lindy-san," Nanoha said, before turning and sprinting for the doors of the school

Fate reached out and almost stopped her, but then let her hand drop. "Thank you, Mother."

Lindy could not help smiling, it was still a thrill when Fate called her that. "I know how close the three of you are," she said, "I'll help, everyone will."

------------------------------

The depths of inter-dimensional space are ever-changing, ever-shifting. Colors man was never meant to see swirl amongst one another, decorating an endless, horizon-less vista. Energies no mortal could control or withstand shriek through the vast emptiness, tempests of pure power. Ships ply the regions, traveling in pursuit of profit, knowledge, power and as many other reasons as there are ships. Contact between them is rare, as the vastness about them far exceeds that of any one dimension's outer space, reducing to flea-speck size even the most titanic of structures. Speeding through the razor thin layer between dimensions, driven by a formidable will and bottomless well of power, a six foot sword was so miniscule as to be invisible.

Had anyone noticed it, and been unfortunate enough to approach, they would have heard one phrase, before their destruction. "Vengeance shall be mine, for Aoi that was taken from me."

Sheo Darren – Pardon, but this'll have to handle both your reviews:) As I said in the first chapter, it was an idea I had – I saw the end of "A's", and imagined that scene (and I'll go ahead and spoil it now, the prologue is just _one _scene). The plot came along afterwards. As far as Nanoha & Hayate, relax, take a chill-pill. Hayate's not dead, just MIA, in furtherance of the plot. And Akira's not a super-powered villain – he's a raving lunatic on a suicidal quest… I think. He's kind of getting more complicated as I plot this out further.


	4. 03 Betrayal

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter Three – Betrayal

"I'm sorry, Mistress," Reinforce replied, looking utterly dejected.

"It's all right, Reinforce," Hayate reassured, pulling herself out of the pile of rubble. "They lasted long enough to get us to the bottom of the cliff. We can walk the rest of the way, it will give me time to heal."

"Yes Mistress," Reinforce looked happier, but was still looking depressed.

Hayate understood how Reinforce could feel that way, though she did not blame the device for what had happened. Unwilling to leave herself as exposed by flying the entire distance to the fortress, Hayate had flown off the cliff, intending to land in one of the wider paths through the devastation about a quarter of the way from cliff to fortress. Unfortunately, within seconds of stepping off the cliff into the air, Sleipner's Wings had failed. Reinforce's frantic efforts, and prodigious use of Hayate's own strength, had not been enough to stabilize the flying spell, but had sufficed to recreate it for precious seconds. Hayate had managed to land in a tumbling fall from a few feet up, instead of crashing from the cliff-height, and the extra bruises were lost amongst her general aches, but Reinforce was horrified by her failure, even now, an hour later.

Hayate, for her part, was more concerned with what to do about the unreliability of her magic, than one instance of failure. _Is it something here,_ she wondered, _or did that pulse of energy damage Reinforce, or injure me?_ The first option was the better, since she could probably figure out a way around it, given time. The second option was more worrisome, if less likely. Reinforce's diagnostics were some of the best ever built into an intelligent device, one of the Bureau's requirements before they would allow her to use the remains of the Tome of the Night Sky as a new device. If those could not detect a problem in Reinforce, and that problem existed, there would be no way to predict the results of continued magic use. The same could be said of any subtle injury to herself. The bruising was bad enough, the thought of damage to her linker core was frightening beyond words. She was relying on that power to keep herself safe, and to get herself home.

Another rumble of thunder interrupted her thoughts, and she glanced up at the heavy clouds overhead. She had been here, and awake, for several hours now, and the sky above had not changed in the least. The dull grey clouds overhead dimmed the light to twilight, and prevented her from determining where the sun was, or if it was even up. The occasional rumbles of thunder, and the even more random flickers of light amongst those clouds, seemed completely disconnected. Hayate's glance was more of annoyance, than concern, since she and Reinforce were by now quite used to the sound.

This time, however, Reinforce squeaked, diving behind her headpiece. "Mistress," she whispered, "something's out there. Something evil."

Hayate took a firmer grip on her staff, turning to place her back to the nearest pile of rubble. It was barely taller than her head, but better than nothing. "Where?"

"Close," Reinforce whispered, "but I can't tell where it is. It's moving."

"Get ready," Hayate said. Battle, under these conditions, would be extremely disadvantageous, but if whatever was out there was determined, then she would have to make do.

The strike came soon, and from exactly the direction she had expected. It came up over the rubble behind her, a tremendous leap that never touched the ground. Hayate sensed the motion, a shift in the air and energies more than anything, and whirled, shouting, "Reinforce! Dome Shield!"

"Yes Mistress!" A white flash of light leapt from the hologram, and just before the massive black form slammed into Hayate, it crashed into a barrier. Waves of white flowed from the impact point for a moment, curling over the dome shape of the shield, and Hayate's eyes widened as she watched. Her Dome Shield was supposed to be invisible both at rest and under attack.

The thing reared back, and Hayate finally got her first look at it. It towered over her, a massive dark shape the size of her house. A long serpentine neck ended in a sharp head, with a fang-filled maw now hissing at her. Two small eyes, set far back but straight forward, glowed a baleful green from between two massive horns curving out to the sides before sweeping backwards. Behind the neck, the body was a huge, solid mass of muscle and bone, shaded by huge wings that were terribly shredded, ragged strips of skin hanging from the bones beneath. A long, whip-thin tail stretched out behind, spraying rocks and debris as it lashed angrily. From tip to tip, it was covered in dull black scales.

"A dragon," Hayate whispered, "Oh heaven help me."

Another strike, this one a swipe of the claws, hit her shield, causing it to ripple again, and Reinforce warned, "Mistress! I cannot hold it!"

"Let's run! Sleipnir's Wings, Reinforce!" The black wings appeared, and Hayate leapt into the air, as a second claw swipe tore through the shield. The dragon shrieked in rage, scrambling over the rubble in pursuit, but Hayate simply went higher. With its tattered wings, it should not be able to pursue her, and in fact only pursued on the ground.

She turned towards the tower, flying as fast as she dared, but seconds later, Reinforce warned, "Mistress, the power is too unstable. I can't hold Sleipnir's Wings much longer!"

"Thank you Reinforce," Hayate said, looking over her shoulder to check the dragon's progress. Ground-bound or not, it was keeping pace with her. The green eyes, the only spot of color on it, were fixed entirely on Hayate.

She turned her gaze forward again, searching for something that could give her an advantage. She found it, a larger pile of rubble before a larger section of open ground. It would give her some room to dodge, and something to use as ammunition, if her more powerful spells failed. She aimed for it, accelerating to get as close as possible before she lost flight. She almost made it, loosing lift just above the large pile of rubble.

"Mistress! Seconds only..." Reinforce's shout gave her enough warning that she landed solidly, instead of plummeting, but the dragon was right behind her. She could hear its snarling breath, and turned on landing to try and hit it with a spell. Unfortunately, it was closer than she thought, and she was still turning when it lunged forward, trying to clamp her between massive jaws. Her attempt to dodge sent her over the side of what proved to be a vertical cliff, and only the fast reflexes of youth allowed her to catch the edge of the stone, saving herself from a twenty-foot drop.

The dragon leapt over her, landing with a crashing thud, and she risked letting go with one hand, swinging Reinforce around protectively. "Reinforce! Solar Slicer!" The head of the staff began glowing white, a sphere of energy appearing before the center of the headpiece. Before she could finish charging the spell, the dragon spun around, lunging to attack again. It was moving too fast for Hayate to say which would hit first, her spell or its fangs, but she held on, to both stone and spell.

Then the dragon froze in place, a few yards away. It stared for a moment, then hissed viciously, and spun away to slither into the rubble again. Seconds later, all trace of it was gone.

"What was that about," Hayate wondered aloud, heart still pounding.

A moment's consideration was all the time she had for it, however, as she had immediate concerns. Slinging Reinforce through a loop on her shoulder, she looked down, finding that she found a rough stone surface that she thought, if she was careful, she could climb down. It took her some time, but she reached the bottom eventually, slumping down to sit for a few minutes and rest, pulling Reinforce across her knees. The device's persona looked as exhausted as Hayate felt, but was keeping watch nonetheless, looking around carefully. Used to the protectiveness of her device, Hayate only noticed when she stopped. Turning to look back at the cliff face she had just scaled. "Oh my," she whispered, and stood, moving away to almost where the dragon had been standing, to get a better view, "that's beautiful."

It was not a cliff, as her tired mind had told her while she focused on getting to the bottom of it, but a carved stone slab, the only truly intact structure she had found. Apparently a single piece, it was twenty feet on a side, filled from top to bottom with a bas-relief carving of a single figure. A woman, of indeterminate size, in profile to the viewer, she made a study in contrasts. She had been depicted in a flowing skirt, light jacket, and glasses, giving the impression of scholarly softness. Yet, her stance was that of a warrior, similar to Signum's. She held a katana before her at the middle-guard position, and wore a determined look on her face fit to match Nanoha at her most implaccable.

"I wonder who she was," Hayate said, "and why the dragon was afraid of just the image of her."

------------------------------

The _Asura_'s return to Bureau Headquarters, three days after being ambushed by Akira, entailed both more and less fanfare than Chrono expected. The 'more' was a direct routing into a repair slip, and the swarm of technicians who appeared to work on the ship almost before it was properly secured in the cradle. Most of this enthusiasm was simply due to the fact that it was rare for a ship to come home so heavily damaged, even the _Asura_, which, between Nanoha, Fate and Hayate, had developed a reputation which earned it the most dangerous missions the Bureau had.

The 'less' was rather more worrisome. While the comm challenges and watch positions were more numerous and stricter than under normal operating conditions, there was no sign of an attack, no sign of combat, and the Bureau reported no intruders whatsoever. Shamal remained convinced that Akira was here, at Headquarters, but no sensors could locate him, and even her divinations were unable to track him from this close a range.

Leaving Amy in charge of the repairs, Chrono left the bridge and headed for the docking tube. He had a meeting with Admiral Moreno, Fleet Operations commander, to discuss the Akira case. Signum and the others were waiting for him, impatient in many ways, but they still had to wait several minutes for the tube to seat and seal properly. Waiting at the far end were Nanoha and Fate. When they reached the end of the tunnel, there was a brief moment of silence, as the seven of them simply looked at one another, unsure what to say.

Nanoha broke the silence, stepping forward to take Shamal's hand, "Has there been any word about Hayate?"

Shamal, suddenly on the brink of tears, pulled Nanoha into a hug. "No," she whispered, "only that we can still sense her alive. But we can't find her!"

"We will," Signum promised, "as soon as we find Akira."

"We'll beat it out of him if we have to," Vita agreed.

Chrono was very careful to keep his exasperated sigh purely mental. The four Wolkenritter had become progressively more bloody-minded as the _Asura_ came closer to Headquarters. He was fairly certain the only reason they were not planning to kill Akira outright was the slim chance he could lead them to Hayate. He was unsurprised when Fate spoke up. "We'll help," she promised, "everything we have."

Signum actually smiled, "That is welcome, Fate. Our thanks."

"Excuse me." The man who interrupted, standing several yards back, was of average height and build, unassuming in a general appearance aside from the short white hair. The uniform and rank tabs of a Second Admiral, however, were more than surprising. Chrono saluted, as was proper, and Nanoha and Fate, still less accustomed to the Bureau's protocol outside _Asura_'s familial working environment, lagged slightly behind. The Admiral returned the gesture gravely, before stepping forward to a more comfortable conversational distance. "My apologies for interrupting, I understand how you are all feeling at the moment, however I wish to speak to Admiral Hallaoun."

"Ladies, Yuuno was doing some research for me," Chrono suggested. "I'll meet you there in a little while, to go over his data before meeting Admiral Moreno."

Nanoha nodded, and the rest followed her. Once they were gone, the admiral pulled Chrono into a side alcove off the main passage, where they would be out of the way of any work crews. "I am Admiral Wilhelm Kriegsen," he introduced himself. "I need to talk to you about the Akira case, as I have some experience with it."

Chrono looked at him in surprise for a moment, then nodded. "I planned to speak to you this afternoon, Admiral. You were the last captain of the _Deva_. Currently head of Secure Archives, where sealed Lost Logia and other dangerous artifacts are stored."

Kriegsen closed his eyes, remembering the sorrow, then nodded, "Yes, I lost my ship, to my everlasting shame. I would like to offer what little I know, and more importantly, what I believe, to help you keep yours."

Chrono nodded. He could use all the help he could get, "You could start by telling me everything you know about who Akira is."

"I don't actually _know_," Kriegsten said. "Officially, no one does. But I have a theory, and some personal knowledge to back it up.

------------------------------

Yuuno's office, as usual, was overflowing with books, notes, requests, and random papers. It had been added on to the Infinity Library a couple of years previously, a large space providing numerous computer access terminals, reading desks, and one wall that was simply an opening into the heart of the Infinity Library. A single door lead to Headquarter's hallways, but it was small and easily lost in the clutter. Despite the apparent randomness, however, Yuuno managed to provide seating for everyone, and find the information Chrono had requested easily.

"I'm afraid I was unable to discover any more than Amy-san," he admitted, once the pleasantries had been cut short by Signum's demand for an update. "Akira, first appeared third day, eighth month, year 3481 Standard reckoning. He destroyed seven ships leaving only two survivors, over the course of about two months, then simply disappeared. Known to be a powerful mage, using an unknown type and style of magic. Extremely combat-oriented, even more than the Velka, and definitely of a destructive bent. No defensive magics observed, no divinatory or transportation magics observed, but existence of same extrapolated based on behaviors and the fact that he was seen on four worlds in three dimensions. Known to have an intimate knowledge of Bureau warships and procedures, based on how easily he bypassed their defenses on seven occasions.

"There's nothing else relevant, not even remotely. He came into existence, wreaked havoc for two months, then ceased to exist. Our best guess as to what happened to him is that the last three ships to pursue him managed to trap and bind him where Hayate found him, but were killed in the process. As for where he came from, we have no idea. No real idea what he's after, either." He shrugged, putting down the data slate he had been reading from, then pushed his glasses up to look at Signum, "I mean, yes he's gone after Bureau ships, and based on your report, Signum-san, he feels a personal hatred towards the Bureau, but even with his power, attacking Headquarters would be futile, and without destroying us here, there's no way to destroy the Bureau. So, we don't _really _know what he's after."

"Vengeance and death," Signum replied.

"But not against who, or who's death," Fate told her, "the Bureau as a whole, or specific people? Is he seeking his own death, or that of every living thing in the multiverse?"

Before anyone could answer, Yuuno's door hissed open, and someone came in, rendered invisible by the stacks of books. A woman called out, "Ano? Excuse me, Scrya-san?"

"Over here," Yuuno called out, rising to meet whoever had just arrived. He did not recognize her voice.

A small woman, in Bureau supports staff uniform stepped hesitantly around the stack of literature. She looked rather mouse-like, long brown hair pulled back in a braid, large glasses hid her eyes, and she like she was terrified of her own shadow. "Um, excuse me, sir? Admiral Kriegsen has assigned me to report on an intelligent device, but, most of the data is classified?" She held out a data slate.

Yuuno smiled, trying to be reassuring after he caught Vita and Zafira glaring at the poor woman. He took the data slate, and reviewed the access permission request contained there-in. After a moment, he nodded, "I see, this is in order. The Sword of Light? I've never heard of that one. Just a moment."

He stepped over to a free terminal, plugging in the data slate. "This'll just take a minute," he told Vita, gesturing calmingly, "and it's part of the job."

Shamal alone was not waiting patiently or staring hostilely at the poor clerk. She gave the woman a quisical look, studying her carefully. "Do I know you?"

The woman tore her eyes away from Vita's glare to look at Shamal, then dropped her gaze and shuffled behind Yuuno slightly, "Um, no? Ma'am? I... I try to avoid... combat mages." Realizing what she said might be taken as an insult, the woman twitched, bowing an apology, "I'm sorry. Please forget I said anything."

Shamal smiled, but was still looking a little confused. Before she could ask, however, the terminal chimed, and Yuuno pulled out the slate, handing it back to the woman. "Here you are, everything in the system regarding the Sword of Light. I could only glance at the summaries, but it looks impressive. The mage who made it, Shimazu Sara, she must have been a genius."

"Yes. Yes, she was," the woman replied, staring at the slate, taking it almost reverently.

The door hissed open again, drawing attention away from the woman. Chrono strode in, walking around the mountains of paper without really noticing them. Admiral Kriegsen was right behind him. Yuuno smiled, glad to see his most stiff-backed friend, even under these circumstances. "Chrono-kun! Ah, and Admiral Kriegsen, one of your clerks is here..." he turned to indicate the woman who he realized still had not identified herself, but stopped when he saw the look on the old admiral's face.

The old man had turned pale, and was staring at the woman who was now half-way across the office like he was looking at a ghost. "Sara," he whispered, then his eyes widened even further, "No... Takashi."

She chuckled, her voice shifting and deepening. Signum and Vita cursed, they and Shamal reaching for their devices, as a black nothingness peeled away from her form. She grew in height, shifting in appearance, as the blackness flowed, until a man stood in her place, tall and imposing, in a pure white uniform. He was still chuckling, as the pitch-black nothingness flowing down his arm to form the Hellblade. "Very good, Wilhelm, I knew you would figure it out, eventually."

Nanoha was the first to find her voice, shifting her gaze between the now armed Vita and Signum, and the stranger, "Wh... what do you mean? This is Akira?" Despite her confusion, Raging Heart appeared in her hand, her barrier jacket forming instantly. Fate was only slightly faster.

Kriegsen swallowed hard, "I knew after you destroyed the _Deva_, Takashi. You look different, you've changed, but the target, the tactics, the speed... the attack had all your hallmarks."

"I am Akira now, Wilhelm, thanks to you." He held up the data slate, waving it slightly, "and thanks to your oh so helpful Head Librarian, I now have the information I need to gain my vengeance." He was floating now, drifting back towards the blank wall. "I'll be back, Wilhelm, for your hide and soul. But for now, my Aoi's last gift is waiting for me."

He turned and flew out into the Library, fast enough to cause a shockwave of loose papers to spill out behind him, disappearing behind a spiral of white. Signum when to lunge after him, but Yuuno was already moving. He grabbed her arm, and shouted to Vita, "Stop! Stop now! You can't fight him in there!"

Signum wrenched her arm out of his grip, glaring daggers at him, "Why not? We have him here..."

"There are tomes in there, some of them are artifacts in their own right. If you start throwing magic about, especially unknown ones... there's too much chance of something reacting badly." He ran for his main terminal, punching in a few commands. Distantly, an alarm started wailing. "That will alert security. Every combat mage in the station will have his description, and hers, in a few seconds. We'll catch him."

"I think," Chrono said, "that you should explain what just happened here, Admiral Kriegsen. You called him Takashi, you two seemed to know each other. He seemed to hate you."

"I know him, he was my premier field officer. He also has reason to hate me," Kriegsen admitted sadly, "I killed his wife, after all."


	5. 04 Objective

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter Four – Objective

Hayate woke quickly, jarred awake by another howl, a sound that was more frightening now that she knew what produced it. The dragon sounded quite distant, however, and she relaxed almost immediately, letting her pounding heart return to its normal rhythm. Once she was calm again, she rose to sit with her back against the stone slab, pulling Reinforce to her.

Rubbing one eye, she asked, "How long was I asleep?"

Reinforce's hologram appeared, tapping her chin contemplatively. "Umm, I think three hours, Mistress? With everything else acting so strangely, I'm not sure about my internal clock. And there's no sun here." The last comment stopped just short of being a whine, causing Hayate to grin slightly.

Pushing herself to her feet, she shifted through some stretches to wake up. It was surprising how much a little sleep made her feel better. The original bruises weren't as bad, though the ones she had gotten from falling off the cliff and fighting the dragon were still stiff and aching. She also felt stronger, her magic recovering from whatever had brought her here. The only downside was that she had nothing to eat.

Once she was fully awake, she realized that her barrier jacket had faded, leaving her in the shorts and t-shirt she usually wore aboard the Asura. Yet another sign that magic was not working properly here, the jacket should have remained even if she was unconscious. "Reinforce, can you grant me my armor?"

Reinforce's hologram twitched, turned from scanning around her, then blushed, "Gomen, Mistress, I... I don't know what happened."

A shimmer surrounded Hayate, and a moment later the steel-reinforced white coat was back, giving her a psychological boost in keeping with the physical one she received from sleeping. "It's all right, Reinforce. This is a weird situation for both of us." Stepping away from the slab, she walked out into the clear area until she could comfortably see the entire sculpture.

She hooked Reinforce into the crook of her elbow, and clapped her hands together twice, bowing deeply to the statue. "Thank you for watching over my rest, Lady," she murmured, "may yours be as well protected, and peaceful." Silently, she recited a prayer for the departed, not entirely confident that it was appropriate but unable to think of another, then turned to face the fortress, still clearly visible above the ruined landscape.

"Fly, or walk?" She could think of advantages and disadvantages to both. Walking was slower, and would limit her visibility if... _when_... the dragon returned. On the other hand, flying would make her easier to spot, given the utter lack of structures to hide behind, and was unreliable, as her escape attempt yesterday had conclusively demonstrated. After a moment, she decided, "Reinforce, Sleipnir's Wings, please. The dragon found us afoot yesterday, it will be able to do so again. Better to be able to see it coming, this time."

"Yes Mistress," Reinforce was obviously more hesitant, but the wings materialized, and Hayate took to the sky again.

"Besides, unsteady or not," Hayate muttered, "I'm tired of this place, wherever it is."

She climbed to an altitude she was confident the dragon could not reach, but would give her plenty of time to reach the ground again safely, not even fifty meters. With one eye out for the dragon, Hayate turned the rest of her attention to the fortress. Whoever was there, if anyone, was a complete unknown. But it was still the only building she could see, and now that she had encountered the dragon, she wanted the security of solid walls about her. She just had to find the way to it, and then find the way in.

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Floating high in the air, Nanoha could only admire the beauty of the place. She had only heard it mentioned, in school, but being here, looking down on the entire glorious expanse of jungle-shrouded stone, filled her with awe. This place had been built by human hands alone, no magic or machines, just a people's will and dedication, stone by stone constructing a beautiful city in the middle of a towering jungle. The fact that it was long abandoned and ruined only added to the awe she felt, for someplace so old to have survived so well.

Stretched out below her, the ruined city of Angkor was half-lost in the Cambodian jungle, slowly being dug out by archaeologists and toursits. A hundred meters or so to her north, Yuuno floated in the air as well, meditating as he tracked Akira's progress. South of her, but slightly closer, Lieze Lotte kept her own watch. The squad of Bureau Mages assigned to support here were hidden, scattered throughout the ruins below in a rough ring, ready to call up a barrier or move to engage Akira, on her command.

While she waited, unwilling to disturb any of the others, she reviewed the information Admiral Kriegsen had provided to Chrono. She was unsure if it made her feel better or not, to know why Akira was doing this, and just how powerful he was. It did not help that she felt uncomfortable with Admiral Kriegsen for some reason she did not know. Something about him had set her nerves on edge, above and beyond his report's information.

--------------------------------------------

"Akira seeks the Sword of Light, his wife's device. Sara was a genius, beyond anyone I've ever met. When she came aboard the _Deva_, she was thirteen, and had already formulated the basics of a new type of magic, not Mid or Velka, but completely new. Takashi was not as smart – no one was, frankly – but he had tremendous raw strength, and a disciplined mind that allowed him to learn from her very quickly. He came aboard at the same time as Sara, a year older than she, to assume command of my field mages. The two of them turned my ship into an academy, for eight years, him teaching combat, Sara teaching anything and everything.

"Sara created both their devices based on her new type of magic, making both of them unique. Hers was the Sword of Light, his was the Sword of Night. Not the best possible name, but she was a genius, not a poet. No one other than the two of them ever really understood her type of magic, and I'm not sure even Takashi fully grasped it, especially as she had a tendency to mingle her own type and Mid-type magic. To give you an idea, her personal notes on the type are in the Infinity Library, in their original form, unencrypted, unsecured. I understand the R&D teams give them to new members, as an exercise in humility.

"Her device was another matter. The Sword of Light was studied for perhaps a year, after her death, by the R&D staff, and the Secure Storage staff. It would not accept another wielder, no matter what was tried, though no one pushed it hard enough to risk damaging it. Even just studying it told us much. When Akira first appeared, however, I thought I knew what he was seeking. I had the Sword broken down into four pieces, the smallest we could manage without catastrophic damage. Three of them were entombed on her home-world, Earth, at her three favorite sites. It was the best I could do, in lieu of burying her there – Stonehenge in England, the ruins of Angkor in Cambodia, and T'ai Shan in China. The fourth piece was held here, in the most secure vault I could access, and remains there to this day.

"That is what Akira seeks now. His own weapon, the Hellblade, is a corrupted form of the Sword of Night, which given their history, should enable him to utilize the Sword of Light simultaneously. I know it's impossible, no mage can power two devices at once, but Sara could. I saw her do it twice, saw Takashi almost manage it once. As Akira, without Takashi's discipline and survival instincts limiting him, he will probably succeed if he tries again. Sara and Takashi faced and sealed three Class One Lost Logia, the same class as the Tome of the Night Sky, though none were as persistent or as dangerous. Two of them were sealed by Sara alone, using both Swords. Akira will have all the power he needs. Not to destroy the Bureau, but to get through it, at me."

--------------------------------------------

Nanoha knew why Admiral Kriegsen had found that feat so impressive. She had once – and only once – tried to use Bardiche, on a mission where everything had gone wrong. When Raging Heart had been damaged too badly to function, and Fate rendered unconscious, she had tried to use Fate's device in desperation. The resultant conflict of personalities and powers had been almost impossible to control, though she had succeeded in getting herself and Fate out of there. To think Sara had been able to not only utilize another's device, but to power hers at the same time, was as awe-inspiring as the view below her.

The rest of his information had not been so pleasant, however.

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"Takashi was, as I told you, a combat instructor, though not in the manner of Miss Takamachi. While he did teach individual combat, spells and the like, he focused on training mages to work in teams. He created our current squad structure, three teams of three mages, with a tenth in command. He was never very good at it himself. The only mage he was any ever good at _working_ with, as opposed to commanding, was Sara.

"Still, he knows Bureau tactics, training, and procedures better than most. They have not changed in the intervening years as much as you might think. The Bureau is rather... static, in many respects. Once we find a method that works, we generally retain it until overwhelming evidence of a better way is presented. So, he will know not only his own spells and plans, but ours as well, and plan accordingly. Keep in mind, he defeated at least five ships that were _expecting _to face him, and the last three had mages of your caliber aboard.

"His people are a strange one. Until his generation, they never produced a single mage, so far as my inquiries could determine. Before he was born, some sort of still un-explained dimensional disturbance devastated the planet, killing almost the entire population and rendering the place uninhabitable. The Bureau rescued the survivors, found most of them new homes, that sort of thing. Takashi's family chose to remain in the Bureau. It was soon found, though, that while their parents did not even possess linker cores, those children born after the cataclysm did. Every one of them became an active mage. Takashi was one of the strongest, terribly powerful even before his wife's death.

--------------------------------------------

Nanoha paused in her reminisces, as the Raging Heart chimed once, flashing the time as a reminder. Reaching out telepathically, she asked, _Fate-chan? Signum-san? How are you doing?_

_Nothing new,_ Signum replied shortly, _he continues to approach at the same rate of speed. Shamal estimates he will be on Earth within half an hour. _Far to the north and west, beyond the curve of the planet, Signum and the Velka Knights kept watch over Stonehenge, another unit of Bureau mages on hand for support.

Fate was keeping watch over T'ai Shan, with Arf, Chrono, and Lieze Aria, with a third Bureau squad. It felt odd, to Nanoha, to have Fate take the position closer to Nanoha's homeland, but Chrono's orders made sense. The blade was here, at Angkor, and it was the single largest piece. Chrono wanted his best combat team there, and the Velka Knights were too emotional over Hayate's disappearance. Not that Nanoha was not emotional, but the four Velka were like Ronin of old, thinking of nothing save their Mistress. _Nothing here,_ Fate told her, _Aria-san can detect his approach, but the closer he comes, the harder he is to hold on to._

_Shamal-san reported something similar at Headquarters,_ Chrono added. Despite being in nominal command, he had tasked Signum, Fate and Nanoha to lead his three separated teams, with Nanoha in overall tactical command. By leaving Fate in control of her team, he could both provide his own strength to the battle, and keep enough attention free for strategic control. Admiral Kriegsen had argued long and hard for Chrono remain aboard the _Asura _or the second ship detailed to the mission, the _Valkyrie_. Both ships were currently riding high orbit around Earth, but Chrono had never been comfortable leading from the bridge, and had politely ignored the Admiral's suggestion. _However he moves about, however we are tracking him, once he gets too close, it overwhelms divinatory magics, renders them useless._

_That is how he got away from Headquarters,_ Vita muttered, practically snarling even mentally, _If ferret-boy hadn't stopped us..._

Chrono cut her off, _you would have destroyed most of the Infinity Library, probably been injured or even killed, and he still would have gotten away. It was too dangerous, Vita. Here, there is more room to maneuver, fewer things to get react in unexpected ways,_ he paused for a moment, _and if the worst happens, room to use the Arc-en-Ciel again with minimal casualties. Thank the Heavens none of these sites is in a city._

Which only served reminded Nanoha of the worst part of Admiral Kriegsen's briefing.

--------------------------------------------

"I had watched Takashi and Sara grow for almost a decade. I remember the way she drove him insane with her absent-minded skill, and the way his skills and techniques used to intrigue her to the point of distraction. They were incredible. I remember officiating at their wedding, six years after they came aboard. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Takashi was like a son to me, by then, and Sara... no one did _not _love Sara, even those who were most humiliated or intimidated by her genius.

"The _Deva_, over that time, became much like your _Asura_ is now, Admiral Hallaoun. With such skilled mages aboard, we found ourselves given the toughest missions the Bureau received, time and again. It is rare for an officer to encounter one Class One in his tour as a ship's captain. While I commanded her, the _Deva _was sent after _four_, because of Sara and Takashi. Also because of the caliber of our missions, the _Deva_ was fitted with an Arc-en-Ciel on a permanent mount.

"The two of them faced and sealed three Class Ones, three of them. The fourth was their undoing. The mission went wrong from the start, there was not even supposed to be a Lost Logia there, it was a routine escort mission for a private archaeological team looking at the ruins of a non-magical civilization. We were going to retrieve them, because the area was dimensionally unstable, and their home-world was on rocky terms with the Bureau. It was supposed to be a diplomatic gesture.

"The Logia activated shortly before we arrived. Takashi, Sara and the rest of my field mages traveled to the surface, and while everyone else gathered the civilians, the two of them engaged and contained the Logia. Once the civilians were clear, Takashi ordered the rest of the mages back aboard the _Deva_. It was not unusual for him, he preferred to investigate personally without endangering others, and he and Sara had handled three before without immediate backup. We all thought there was nothing to worry about.

"I don't know exactly what happened but... they failed to contain it. It reacted violently, and began forming a dimensional dislocation, a large one. We tried to pull the two of them back, but we could barely detect them in the chaos of energies. I... I had no choice. I fired the Arc-en-Ciel. It was that, or watch a dimensional dislocation on the scale of Al Hazrad occur again. I couldn't... _could not_... allow that to happen. It is my belief that, in the last moment, the Lost Logia somehow merged itself with Takashi, to create Akira, but I cannot prove it.

"Regardless… they were my mages, my crew... my children, in many ways. And I killed one of them, and turned the other into a monster. The Bureau cleared me of any wrongdoing but... the Bureau is not Sara, or Takashi. I betrayed two of my own, and will carry that shame to my grave. I can only hope my sins do not cost even more.

--------------------------------------------

The thought of that scenario, of being in Admiral Kriegsen's place, or Takashi's, gave Nanoha chills. She knew how close she had come to being in Takashi's place, when the rogue security routines of the Tome of the Night Sky were finally defeated. She knew how that had affected Admiral Lindy, when there had been hope of another way. To have been there, and _not_ found another way... even in the warm air over Angkor's ruins, the thought gave her chills.

"Lost him," Yuuno muttered suddenly, unfolding from his lotus position, rubbing his eyes to clear them. "He's somewhere inside lunar orbit, but I can't fix it any closer than that."

"It's all right, Yuuno-kun," Nanoha reassured, "he'll show up here, or at one of the other sites, eventually. Then we'll converge, and have him trapped."

Yuuno nodded, "It's just annoying, Nanoha-chan. Someone who's that obvious, they should be easy to pinpoint, especially for Shamal-san and myself. But it's like he just... washes out the spell."

"Sort of like staring at the sun," Lotte offered, "from far way, it's just a pretty star, but from this close, it's a blinding light that can't be seen past."

"Yeah, something like that. It's just annoying. Now I'm really starting to worry."

--------------------------------------------

Chrono had ordered them distributed in teams. When it was determined that this would be decided on Earth, Chrono had contacted Admiral Graham, and 'borrowed' the Lieze Twins for additional support. Admiral Graham himself had offered to come, but Chrono turned the Admiral down. Officially, he felt that eleven special officers supported by thirty regular combat mages should be enough to handle one rogue, however insane. Unofficially, he mentioned something to Nanoha about having a plan of some sort forming, something involving their specific numbers and teams, and how the Lieze twins would fill those teams out.

The plan, as she understood it, was to have one team over each site, to allow for Akira's going after any of them. Wherever he did show up, the on-site Bureau squad would form a barrier, while the special officers would engage and contain Akira. Once it was confirmed that Akira was at one of the sites, the other two teams would converge there, a matter of seconds, bypass the barrier, and assist. The _Asura _and _Valkyrie _in orbit would provide intelligence and coordination, and in a worst-case scenario, the _Asura_ had once again been fitted with an Arc-en-Ciel. Chrono had been livid that Admiral Kriegsen had arranged that without informing him, but in the end had admitted that it might be needed.

--------------------------------------------

_He's here,_ Signum reported, _the Hellblade just appeared above the center of the stone ring._

_All right, we're moving to join you,_ Nanoha said, raising Raging Heart to begin the transfer spell.

_Wait,_ Chrono ordered, _make sure he's actually there, not just projecting a hologram of some sort._

_I'll make sure it's him,_ Vita stated, _by beating that thing into dust._ A moment later she added, voice filled with loathing, _Oh that's just disgusting. He's _flowing _out of the damn _sword_. Gross!_

_All right, Nanoha, start moving,_ Chrono ordered. _Signum, both teams are on the way to your location. Keep him busy._

Nanoha nodded, despite his being over the horizon, and called out, "Valkyrie Squad, form on me, please!" The mages began rising out of the jungle and ruins, moving to circle her as Yuuno and Lotte moved in closer. Raising her staff, she called out, "Raging Heart, mass transfer, local dimensional coordinates..."

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Sheo Darren – Hmm, response to two replies at once, but this is the next chapter, so here you go... Yeah, Vita struck me as the most sarcastic of all the characters in both series, so don't be surprised if you see more such cracks out of her. You've got to admit though, those aren't very pleasant-sounding spells. As far as Akira being a 'tragic villain', well, I guess, but I'm trying to make him a bit more complicated than that (and no doubt succeeding only in being obvious). Hayate, and what's going to happen to/with her, are related, I think, to the issue you mentioned with 'separation of parts? I'm actually trying to run this as two or three story-lines, which are only loosely tied together, except at the beginning and the end – Hayate's, everyone else's, and occasionally Akira's. It was either alternate chapters, or alternate parts of chapters, and this way's helping me keep both lines progressing in my own head. Sorry if it's confusing, but for me, at least, the 'jumps' are less confusing this way than having to shift gears for every chapter. Addendum - the 'separation of parts' thing, did you mean the lack of clearly delineated boundaries to show when I switched? Sorry 'bout that, I need to start proofing these chapters on FFN, as well as on my computer, before adding them to the story. I'll be going back and updating all of my stories, now… gah, what a nightmare.


	6. 05 Wrack

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Author's Note: Due to events in this chapter, I'm upgrading the rating of this story to 'M'. It's just a little too harsh for me to feel comfortable leaving it at a lower rating.

Chapter Five – Wrack

Hayate stared at the obstacle before her, and sighed, "Well, this is going to be a problem. Reinforce, can you tell how deep this is?" Blocking most of her view of the clouded sky, the fortress stood atop a towering pillar of stone before her, the lowest edge easily as high as the cliff she had first descended to enter to this valley. Between her and it, however, was a gaping chasm, only twenty or so meters across, but plunging into the earth so far she could not see the bottom.

Holding her staff over the edge, Hayate watched the hologram scan about below, then shake her head. "I'm sorry, Mistress. It's too deep, and whatever is disturbing the magic is stronger here. I think it might be down there."

"Or in the fortress," Hayate said, looking up at the towering edifice. The seamless walls of the structure loomed above the edges of the pillar, overhanging those edges in places. There was no place visible, from here, for her to land, even if she could reach the structure, except on the roof of one of the sections. She still had no idea if she would be able to find a way in or not, if she could get there. "How long do you think you could hold Sleipnir's Wings?"

Reinforce gave her a worried look, "Umm, I don't know, Mistress. Everything is so unstable."

Hayate nodded her agreement. The Wings had failed three times on the way here. The second had been the most worrisome, as the Dragon had been close by when she had to land. She had been stuck afoot for hours now, covering the last half kilometer or so to the edge of the chasm. But flying was her best bet, the most familiar method available to get across the chasm. "Your best guess, please."

Reinforce nodded, "Yes, Mistress. Maybe, a minute?"

Hayate thought about it, about how fast the unstable spell would let her fly, and shook her head. _It won't last long enough,_ she thought before asking, "What about a bridge? A binding here, projected to the roof of the fortress..."

Reinforce nodded, "That might work, Mistress. Bindings are always more stable than mobility magics."

"We'll try it, but I don't like creating a new spell on the fly like this, not under these conditions." Tapping her jaw, she considered for a moment the best way to go about forming a bridge of pure magic. She had never had to think of such a thing before, Sleipnir's Wings had always sufficed to get her wherever she needed to go. "I think, Sunlight's Rest and Barrier of Twilight should work," she decided, "The second to form the bridge, the first to anchor it in place. Reinforce?"

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Barrier of Twilight, Please."

"Yes, Mistress!" The hologram spun about, stretching her arms out. Hayate matched the gesture, extending her staff out over the chasm, angled towards the roof to the closest block of the fortress. As the triangular sigil of her power appeared beneath Hayate, the head of the staff began to glow, and she felt the power flowing through her. It was unsteady and fitful as it had been since she arrived in this strange place, the disruption worse now that she was so close to the fortress. Still, the power flowed, and Reinforce shaped it to match Hayate's will.

Slowly, a shimmering light stretched out from Hayate's feet, underlying her sigil. It grew, an arcing shape of soft light shading from white through red to purple, until it was four meters wide. Then, it continued growing, colors deepening, stretching out in a straight line towards the point she had indicated. She had created Barrier of Twilight to provide a physical and magical block across corridors and the like, or to wrap around an opponent to seal them inside. She noticed almost immediately that the deep purple shimmer the completed sections normally displayed was flickering, the normally opaque barrier become translucent in places.

She fully expected the howl behind her, as the Dragon sensed her magic and protested its use. She had not expected it to be so close, and glanced behind nervously. Drifts of pebble-sized rubble blocked her view after a few meters, even the path she had followed to get here twisting out of site. "Reinforce, can you go any quicker?"

"I'm sorry, Mistress. The disruption is fighting the barrier. I... I am not certain I will be able to complete it."

"Do your best," Hayate told her, mind racing. The Dragon was close, probably close enough to catch her before the bridge was complete. If she broke off now, and ran, it would catch her. It had already demonstrated twice that it was faster over this treacherous terrain than she was, and, in their second encounter, that it was practically invulnerable to her magic. She would have to run, but escape by air was the only way to do so, as she previously done, a great risk.

"Reinforce," she said after a few moment's thought, "Begin Sunlight's Rest as well, please."

"Yes, Mistress," Reinforce's voice was strained, but Hayate's power drove her, and the two of them began binding the barrier in place. Triangular sigils, smaller versions of Hayate's, appeared at the corners of the Barrier of Twilight.

For a few minutes, the two of them focused entirely on the twin spells, driving the bridge out over the chasm, holding the binding to anchor it in place. Then, again behind her, Hayate heard the shifting of gravel. _The dragon's here,_ she thought, turning to check. It still was not visible, but she could hear the gravel shifting under its weight as it closed. It was moving slowly, stalking her, but she knew it would be on top of her any minute. "Reinforce, we need to go."

"Half way, Mistress," Reinforce told her, "the bridge is only half way across the chasm."

"It will have to do," Hayate said, seeing a flicker of black over one pile of rubble. Turning her back on the dragon, she began walking forward, onto the incomplete barrier-bridge. "Keep pushing it across."

She was a few meters out when the dragon howled again behind her, and she glanced back to see it standing atop the last drift of rubble. It was glaring at her, the baleful green stare as frightening as it had been the first time she saw it. She could feel her heart pounding, her hands shivering with reaction, and wanted to run madly away from it, but held herself to a walk, to maintain control over the power flowing through Reinforce. That took even more self-control, as she saw it leap, only to land at the foot of the bridge.

It paused there, bending its neck down to sniff at the magical structure, without taking its eyes off her. She held herself to a walk, giving Reinforce as much energy and time as she could to extend the bridge further. The dragon reached forward a claw, resting it on the bridge, and for a moment Hayate thought it would pursue her along the bridge. Instead, it snarled, snapping the claw back before swiping at the immaterial surface before it.

The entire bridge shook, and Hayate cried out in fear as she stumbled, falling to her knees and almost off the shifting purple expanse. Struggling back to her feet, she saw the dragon reaching back for another strike. Turning away, she gave up on the bridge, and ran forward, racing to get as far along the bridge as she possibly could before it failed. Another tremor swept the expanse, but she kept her balance this time. "Reinforce! Sleipnir's Wings!"

"I can't hold them long, Mistress!"

"It will have to be long enough. Now, Reinforce!"

Reinforce's efforts took her into the air just as a third strike caused the entire bridge to wobble, visibly. The dragon howled again, but Hayate ignored it. Abandoning the bridge, she poured all her power into Sleipnir's Wings, praying it would be enough. Rocketing almost straight up, she focused on her landing point ignoring everything else. She could not afford to look down or back, even when the Wings began to fail again and her flight became stumbling and erratic. Her vision narrowed to a single point, an edge of concrete that filled her world, even as she felt herself plummeting, falling into the nothing below...

Only to have her outstretched hand caught, her wrist held in a powerful grip that she instinctively returned. Slamming into the concrete wall, she heard twin grunts of pain and effort, but ignored them, needing a second to collect her wits. Looking up, she found herself staring into a pair of brilliant blue eyes.

The woman grunted once, as she heaved Hayate up over the edge of the fortress roof in a single pull, apparently by physical strength alone. Hayate could only let her, surprised beyond words at her last-second rescue, and at finally finding another human being. Once she was on her feet, however, she studied the woman. She was as small as Hayate, and appeared only slightly older, a wide honest face framed by coppery red hair. She stood comfortably, returning Hayate's studying gaze with a small, slightly amused, smile. "You really should be more careful," she told Hayate, "exploring around here is dangerous. The beastie down there isn't polite, even when he's in a good mood, like today." Hayate blinked, looking back to find the Dragon still crouched on the edge of the chasm, glaring at her, hissing. "And that magic," the woman continued, shaking her head, "It's Mid-type, right?" Hayate nodded, and the woman shook her head, "Mid-type magic is no good around here. Too much of this place is powered by Deva-type magic, the two types conflict. I'm impressed you managed as much as you did, most mages wouldn't have been able to light a candle, let alone cross the Divide."

"Ah... Deva-type?" Hayate asked the first thing that popped into her head, then shook herself, "I mean, where is this place? I'm not exploring, I'm lost. And, I'm sorry, but... who are you?"

The woman studied her for a moment, looking confused, "That's not possible. The only way to get here is through Deva-type magic. Nothing else will get through the dimensional disturbances. But, that's something for another time. Come on, let's get you inside and cleaned up. You've obviously had a rough time of it."

The woman turned and started walking towards a blank wall, where another block of the fortress rose from the one they were standing on top of. Hayate stayed where she was, and repeated, "Umm, who are you, please? And where am I?"

The woman stopped, looking at her blankly, then gave that slightly amused smile again, and shook her head, "My name is Beaudicea. You'll meet my sister, Hypatia, inside. As for where you are, I'm not the one to tell you that, if you don't already know. Now come, you have nothing to fear now, the dragon cannot reach this place."

Something about the names seemed familiar to Hayate, but she could not place them. Having to decide between following the woman, or finding her own way in, Hayate decided to follow, and see what would happen.

------------------------------

The appearance of the Hellblade had been surprising enough. There had been no warning, no sign, before the massive blade simply appeared, slipping through inter-dimensional barriers as easily as through water. It had hovered there, a few meters above Stonehenge's decaying Altar Stone, as Signum informed Chrono and the rest.

Akira's appearance was a reverse of the Hellblade's appearance in Scrya's office, a comparison Signum could not help snarling at the memory of. A white distortion appeared on the blade, flowing up its length to the grip in blatant violation of gravity, then flowing off the grip and spilling out until the traitor stood before them, looking at each of the four Velka Knights with disinterested superiority.

Ignoring Chrono's commands, Signum sent her own message, _Deva Squad, raise a barrier, the strongest you can. Let nothing in or out, the four of us will deal with him._

_Yes, Signum,_ the squad leader was new to her, he had never worked with the Velka before, but he knew better than to question her. A preliminary barrier shimmered into place, and distantly Signum could sense an even stronger one forming outside of the first.

Akira looked up, taking in the oily distortion between him and the rest of the world, and quirked an eyebrow. Looking back down, he glanced over each of the Velka again, before settling his gaze on Signum, face utterly expressionless. "I do not have time for you, child," he stated. "Aoi's gift sleeps here, and I will retrieve it. If I must do so over your corpses, so be it. You cannot stand against my power in this place, where Aoi learned her secrets. I offer you one chance to depart alive." His voice had changed, becoming toneless and cold, as it had been when he used his techniques in the ruined base.

Surprised by his emotionless stance, after the blazing hatred she had seen the last two times she met him, but willing to talk if it bought her time, Signum informed him, "All we want is our mistress, Yagami Hayate."

"I know no one by that name."

"She released you from your binding. Whatever you did there caused her to disappear."

Still expressionless, he replied, "then she is dead. Nothing could have survived that blast."

"Then you'll be following her!" Vita shout cut Signum off. A moment later, Vita followed with, "Missile Hammer!" Spinning like a top, barely holding onto Graf Eisen as the weapon's rocket spun it about her, she lunged towards Akira.

He watched her come, quirked an eyebrow, and swung the Hellblade in a short, sharp arc. "Graveward." A flash of darkness trailed from the tip of the sword as it swung, and just before Vita reached it, the line exploded into a jumbled wall of bones. Vita slammed into it powerfully, blasting the wall into fragments, but reflecting off it without getting past.

Signum lunged into the fray, senseing Zafira close from the other direction. She watched Vita bounce back from her strike, but Akira appeared unaffected by the blast of bone fragments that sailed past him to rain down on the circled standing stones. As Vita bounced recovered her balance, he aimed the tip of his sword at her, and intoned, "Brimstone Spear." The dark ring of his sigils appeared beneath him, and another appeared at the tip of his sword. A moment later, a massive spear of molten rock launched from the sigils, too close for Vita to dodge.

"Flying Dragon Flash!" Signum's spell took too long to build, came too late to stop his, but she already knew she would not have to save Vita – defense had never been her responsibility. Sure enough, the molten spear slammed into a triangle of green light, Shamal's Palisade spell, a bare meter from Vita. Signum's own attack thundered towards Akira, a blast of purple light from Levantine which contrasted sharply with the violent red of his spell dissipating.

Akira, focused on his strike against Vita, whipped the Hellblade between him and Signum, absorbing her strike with the blade. A moment later he dropped straight down, allowing the last of Signum's spell to flash past, forcing Zafira to abort his own rush or be caught in the blast. Signum moved with him, Vita and Zafira following a moment later. Two bolts of darkness leapt off the Hellblade before they could engage him again, smashing into the surrounding barriers. The inner failed, but the stronger outer absorbed the strike without sign. Signum did not want to give him another chance to try and break the barrier, and nodded to Vita and Zafira. All three of them lunged to the attack simultaneously.

------------------------------

Nanoha completed her teleport, appearing with her team a kilometer distant from Stonehenge. Invisible to non-mages, the barrier Deva Squad had erected was painfully evident to her, encompassing a relatively small area compared to most she was used to, but combining the power of ten Bureau Armed Enforces it was stronger than she was used to as well. Still, she could sense the powers being unleashed within that barrier, the familiar radiance of the Velka Knights contrasting sharply with the nothingness of Akira's spells.

Fate arrived with her team at about the same time, and the two of them brought their teams to the ground next to the lieutenant in charge of Deva Squad. He was straining to hold the barrier, with his squad-mates, already sweating. "They've been in there for five minutes," he ground out. "Don't know how they haven't beaten him down, but..."

"Akira is living up to his reputation," Chrono said. "The eleven of us should be able to bring him down, though."

"Yes," Nanoha said, "Yuuno-kun, Arf-san, can you handle the last transfer, please? Valkyrie Squad, Asura Squad, please set up a fail-safe barrier. Lieutenant Winters, we'll need you to weaken the barrier enough for us to teleport through it." She had tried to go directly into the combat zone with her teleport, but the barrier had been far too strong for such a long range transfer to penetrate it.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he ground out, "but I don't think we can. Some of Akira's spells appear to be directed at the barrier itself, not just the Velka. We're at our limit just holding it! If we weaken it, it'll fail completely. I'm not even sure we can weaken it without dropping it ourselves."

She stared at him, surprised. Every battle she had fought before, no one had ever managed to fight off even a single mage, and attack a confinement barrier. It had always required multiple mages to do that – at least one for every mage inside the barrier, and one more to attack the barrier itself. Surprise was something she was used to, however, and her orders came fast and sure. "Valkyrie squad, set up a second barrier at this range, just as strong but enclosing us. Keep Deva Squad outside of it! Asura Squad, create a fail-safe barrier outside that created by Valkyrie Squad. Special Officers inside Deva Squad's positions, please. Lieutenant Winters, when Valkyrie Squad's barrier begins to interfere with yours too much to hold, drop your barrier and fall back to support Asura Squad."

A chorus of, "Yes ma'am," sounded, and she turned her attention towards the barrier. She looked at Fate, who shook her head. Nanoha gave her a worried look, "You can't reach anyone?"

"No," Fate whispered, "the barrier is too strong."

"I hope they can hold long enough for us to reach them," Nanoha said.

"They will," Chrono said, "the four of them are together this time, and prepared. They'll hold him, we'll capture him."

------------------------------

Signum fell back, panting. She, Vita and Zafira had developed a pattern of trading blows with Akira. Unified attacks had proven too dangerous, as he repeatedly turned the attack of one Knight against the others. So while Vita closed, slamming Graf Eisen's enhanced head into Akira's Hellblade, Signum fell back. It was her turn for a breather, while Zafira set up another spell. Shamal appeared next to her, hands glowing with green energy as she tried to heal the worst of the scrapes, cuts and bruises Signum had acquired.

"He's incredible," Signum whispered, watching Vita's near-berserk assault being turned aside again. "How he can still have the energy for this, after this long."

"He's drawing a lot of it from somewhere else, I think," Shamal said, "But I have an idea."

Signum just looked at her, waiting, so Shamal explained briefly. Signum found herself chuckling, shaking her head. "Only you, Shamal, would think of this. We'll try it." _Zafira. Vita. Shamal has a plan we're going to try. Hit him with everything you've got on the count of five._

Signum drew herself up, and pulled Levantine's scabbard from her belt. "Levantine, Bow Form." A moment later, the mechanical voice of her device echoed her, reforming into a massive longbow. Reaching within for the power, she formed an arrow of energy, setting it in the bow, and drawing to her limit to power it. She sensed Vita and Zafira, both ready, and Akira, standing between them, another blast of darkness slamming into the barrier. The three Velka Knights struck as one.

"Storm Falcon!"

"Giant Crusher!"

"Steel Yoke!"

Energy fit to crush an army crashed in on Akira, and Signum felt a moment of terror that they might succeed beyond their plans. If he died, if they killed him, they would loose their only chance to find Hayate. But as the tip of his sword stopped Vita's hammer cold, a wave of darkness swept about him, enveloping him and hiding him from sight a bare moment before her strike and Zafira's landed. The darkness shattered like glass under the punishing strikes, but Akira was still there, still alive.

For a moment, he stood there, actually panting, as Signum was, and she felt a fleeting satisfaction that they had actually made him work. Memory of how hard it had been for to do that, however, dampened the feeling easily. He stared at her, then showed the first emotion he had in the entire fight, a smirk appearing on his lips as he straightened. He opened his mouth to speak, then jerked, like puppet on strings, as a shimmering light appeared in his chest, Shamal's hand sliding slowly out of his chest.

He gaped for a moment, trying to work the words out past what Signum knew was a terrifying and painful experience. She felt no sympathy, however. Only worry, for there was no glowing linker core in Shamal's hand.

"I can't find it!" Shamal's cry cut through her growing satisfaction. Signum glanced at her, saw the glowing ring of Klarer Wind's scrying form, and the panicked look on Shamal's face. "I can't find his linker core!"

He laughed, a loud, insane sound. He raised the Hellblade over his head, blackness gathering at its tip, and shouted, "Soul Breaker, Multiple Strike!" A shaft of pure darkness leapt from the Hellblade, rising vertically until it struck the barrier. There, at the apex, it crashed through and split, ten rays splitting to arc downwards.

------------------------------

Nanoha stood ready, waiting. She and Fate were on opposite sides of the barrier, their teams around them. When the inner barrier collapsed, they would move in from opposite sides. It was taking too long, she knew, but there was no way to hurry it without forcing the inner barrier to collapse. The outer barrier was forming now, however, and she knew that they would be able to move in mere moments.

A dark chill sent shiver through her, and then something smashed through the top of the barrier, a dark shaft that split even as she noticed it. Ten bolts arced down around the barrier, and she reacted without thinking. "Raging Heart, Round Shield!" The circle of warding sigils appeared before her, sheltering not only herself but Yuuno and Lieze Lotte as well. It was not until the shield was in place that she realized the dark lines of power were aiming at someone else. She spun tried to expand her shield, but the bolts struck with lightning speed, against the unprepared members of Deva Squad.

The ten Bureau mages screamed in unison – high, agonized sounds – as the darkness slammed through them. The arcs cut off almost instantly, and the barrier fell with the mages. Nanoha hesitated, then heard Chrono's order, _Get Akira! We must capture Akira!_

The Velka Knights were still flying, as was Akira. She saw Shamal pulling her hand back out of Klarer Wind's scyring form, and knew instantly what they were trying, even as Vita, Signum and Zafira moved to attack again. "Raging Heart, Divine Buster!" Her power flowed into the device, into the ring of symbols that appeared and the glowing pink sphere. Before she could fire, Akira unleashed another spell. She could not hear what he said, at this distance, but she saw a cloud of ash swirl around the Hellblade, shot through with flickering red light. The cloud leapt upwards, expanding as it went, until a swirling blackness thundering over head. Nanoha steeled herself, continuing, "Divine Buster, Shoot!"

The bolt of energy leapt from Raging Heart's forked tip, a searing, ruler-straight line of power that came no closer than half way to its target. Black lightning slammed down, rapid strikes thundering over the area like water falling in a rain storm, one intercepting her Divine Buster. Those strikes, throwing stone, grass and dirt high, were followed almost immediately by massive winds, and a rain of burning stone. Nanoha had no choice but to abort her attack and throw up shields around her team, trying to protect them from a triple threat she could barely imagine. The spiraling of the cloud overhead was lost to her in the chaos of the moment.

_Nanoha! Akira is moving!_ Even Yuuno's mental voice was hard to hear over the howl of the wind and storm. _He's drawing out the device!_

_I can't do anything about it,_ she replied, _I can barely hold our shields against this. What is this?_

_'Hellfire Hurricane'_ Signum told her, _that is what he shouted. Shamal thinks it was a pre-prepared spell of some sort, it's too strong to have been generated here and now. Where are you?_

_Outside the prior shield perimeter. Yuuno-kun, can you teleport us closer to the center?_

He took a moment before answering, _I think so. Lotte, can you move in closer?_

Admiral Graham's combatant familiar moved in close, pulling Yuuno in with her, until they were pressed in close to Nanoha. _Close enough, Yuuno-kun? I can assist you._

He flushed, then nodded. Closing his eyes, he began building his teleport spell, only to be cut off by Signum. _Don't, you can't get here in time. He has the tsuba. He's fading back into the Hellblade. Can you get use out? We're each under separate shields, this storm is pounding us too hard._

_Well get Signum and Zafira,_ Fate told her.

Nanoha could only agree, _Then Yuuno-kun and I will get Shamal and Vita._

Teleporting through the storm was incredibly difficult, and Nanoha had to leave both to Yuuno. He was still better at such magics than she was, so she poured her power into expanding the shields around them. First Vita, then Shamal, appeared under her protective shield, battered and worn, but still alive. Vita was snarling with rage, only tiredness and lack of cartridges kept her from lunging back into the storm to try and follow Akira. Shamal was more reserved, kneeling next to Nanoha where Yuuno's teleport left her, apparently in shock.

The destructive storm burned itself out relatively quickly, after only slightly more than a minute, the burning rain and black lightning faded from the drumbeat strikes to a more natural randomness, eventually to a few scattered strikes and then nothing. Crouched under her shield, Nanoha stared out at the devastation left behind with horror. The landscape for kilometers around had been scorched and blasted, nearby roads shattered, the few buildings destroyed and burning. Only the central ring of Stonehenge itself was untouched, still jarringly green and normal, a single column of smoke rising from the center of the ring.

As soon as the storm cleared, Shamal was up and moving to the members of Deva Squad. Nanoha, in contrast, called up Flyer Fin and flew towards the center of the devastation. There, she met Chrono and Fate. The central Altar Stone was cracked and shattered, split in three major pieces with scattered chips littering the ground.

"He has the first piece," Chrono said. "We need to get to the other sites quickly, he's probably already there."

"He's withdrawing," Lieze Aria said, joining them, "Yuuno and I have detected him again, he is moving away. The spells he unleashed here were terribly powerful, he will need time to recover from their use, as will we."

Chrono nodded. He had done nothing save defend, mixing his own shields with Fate's to protect her team and those Bureau mages who had been able to reach them, yet even he felt drained. "We should do the same. We'll transfer the wounded to the Asura and the Valkyrie, the worst cases can be transferred to Headquarters from there, through the relay points."

"Four," Signum said, "there are four wounded, three from Valkyrie Squad, one from Asura Squad."

For a moment all anyone could do was look at her, before Chrono asked softly, obviously dreading the answer, "What about Deva Squad?"

Signum shook her head, "They are dead, all ten of them. Shamal says they died instantly when that attack hit them."

Chrono and Fate paled, and Nanoha could not help gasping, the shock of it was too much. "Ten mages?" she whispered, "In one attack? I... I can't believe he... killed them..."

"He is a monster," Signum snarled, "and he has Hayate."

Chrono visibly gathered himself again. "Gather the fallen," he ordered, "we will honor them as they are due, but our mission is now all the more critical. He has part of the Sword of Light, now, and will be all the more aware of what we can do. Signum, I am reassigning your team to the Asura. You will be on high-guard, ready for immediate transport to whatever site he is at. It took us too long to gather. Next time, we will have to be faster."

Nanoha could only nod. She still could not believe that ten men and women she had gotten to know, however poorly, over the last few days were now gone, completely and utterly. _One attack,_ she kept thinking, _how could he do that?_

------------------------------

Ray Venn Hakubi – Thank you for reading. In all honesty, I'm not actually sure, yet, where Hayate is. I've got three possibilities, all of which will work with what's already written, and each of which entails a slightly different ending. 'Course, your review's now given me a _fourth_ possibility... decisions, decisions. As for killing the dragon, or Akira reverting to Takashi, I'm afraid you'll have to read on to find out:). Regarding Hayate's spells, I both agree and disagree with you, I'm afraid. What I eventually decided for purposes of this story is this: The only spells she ever used in the show were directly from the Tome of the Night Sky, which at the end was sealed permanently, leaving only a non-magical bit of metal. While Hayate did turn that bit of metal into the basis for her device, named it Reinforce complete with a holographic self-awareness, and patterned its appearance on the original Tome & Staff, it is essentially an entirely new device, without the Tome's vast records, so Hayate had to completely reinvent her own magic (The Tome woke her own power, and gave her access to its spells, but once it was gone, it took the spells with it). So her spells here are based on the Velka Knights teaching her (with input from Nanoha, Fate and the rest), and her attempts to recreate what she remembered from her brief period of total access to the Tome. I could make arguments the other way, that all of the Tome's knowledge was implanted in Hayate's mind, but decided to use the first argument in this story, since it gives me an excuse to do some things later that following strictly in the Tome's tradition would not.


	7. 06 Ruin

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter Six – Ruin

"Ano... Beaudicea," Hayate asked, "where are we going?"

"One of the libraries," The red-head replied, "Hypatia wants to meet you, but figured you'd want to get cleaned up first. Since you're all prettied up and fed, next stop's Hypatia."

Hayate blinked, struggling to keep up both physically and verbally, trotting along while trying to make sense of Beaudicea's statement. From what she had seen so far, Beaudicea had two speeds – fast, and faster. She was currently stuck in the second, and had been since she had stormed into the bathroom with a robe for Hayate and a comment about 'seeing Hypatia'. The bath and meal, simple as they had been, had surprised Hayate, given the desolate nature of the place, even here inside the fortress. On the other hand, they had done wonders, and she felt entirely human again. A few of the worst scrapes she had received were still there, but she no longer ached so thoroughly.

The inside of the fortress was, as she had feared while approaching it, plain and empty. The hallways were straight corridors of plain concrete, not even variations in color to distinguish them. There were no doors, that she had seen, only doorways that stood empty, most opening on to equally empty rooms. The bathing chamber had at least had a curtain, but even then there had been depressingly little beyond the bare concrete.

Hayate almost stumbled into her guide's back when Beaudicea stopped, catching the other woman's grin. She was standing before yet another doorway, through which Hayate could see several bookshelves crammed with tomes. "In here," she said. After a pause, the red-head added, in a rather loud stage-whisper, "I should warn you, Hypatia's a stiff, got a real big stick up her..."

"Stop spreading lies about your sister, Beaudicea," Another woman called out from the far side of the door, voice stern but not harsh, "and bring our guest in. _He_ was here again, a few minutes gone, and I do not know when he will return."

Beaudicea just grinned, and stepped through, waving Hayate in behind her. Clutching Reinforce more tightly, Hayate stepped through into the library. Hypatia was quite obvious, sitting in one of the only two chairs in the room, placed in its exact center. The only other furnishings were the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, all of them laden with volumes fit to daunt Yuuno. Hypatia herself was a sharp contrast to Beaudicea. As she stood, it was obvious that she was taller than the red-head, probably taller than Signum, but much more finely built, a long cascade of white hair falling past her shoulders. Still, looking at the two of them, the similarities were striking. Both had the same facial structure, the same way of standing, and those same piercing blue eyes. With two examples, Hayate finally made a connection that had been bothering her since first studying Beaudicea. "You look like the woman from the carving, the one the dragon is afraid of."

Hypatia quirked an eye, then shared a look with Beaudicea. After a moment, she nodded, "Yes, Miss, we do look like her. She was our Lady, our creator."

"You're familiars, then," Hayate relaxed mentally. Familiars would explain much, and gave her a way to relate to these two that did not leave her totally confused and uncertain.

Hypatia shook her head, while Beaudicea giggled. "No," the blonde said, "we are not familiars. Our purpose is too focused, our existence too limited. I do not believe there has ever been anything like us before. Forgive me, I have been rude." She spread her arms slightly and bowed, "I am Hypatia, Keeper of the Tomes."

Beside Hayate, Beaudicea did not bother bowing, "I'm Beaudicea, of course, Defender of the Tomes."

Shifting Reinforce to the crook of her arm, Hayate returned Hypatia's bow, and gave her rarely used formal title, as it seemed more appropriate. "My name is Yagame Hayate, Mistress of the Night Sky."

Hypatia gave her a curious look, "The Tome of the Night Sky? You possessed _and_ survived it?"

Hayate felt a twinge of grief, remembering her original Reinforce, but nodded, "My friends and I managed to bring it under control long enough to seal it permanently." She held forth her staff, "I made this from the Tome's final remnants, a tribute to her, for the gifts she gave me. How did you know it's true name?"

Instead of answering, Hypatia bowed deeply, "You have my respect then, Mistress of the Night Sky. Be welcome in our abode." When she was vertical once again, she waved to the other chair, "Please, be seated. As I told Beaudicea, we may not have much time before he returns."

Moving to the offered seat, conscious of Beaudicea moving to stand behind Hypatia, Hayate asked, "Ano... before who returns?"

Beaudicea shook her head, "Don't know, don't care. He's not the Lady, and I don't think he's the Lord."

"He might be," Hypatia countered, "We have no memory of the Lord's appearance, and his appearance changes each time he comes here."

Beaudicea pulled a face, "but we know what the Lord's like, and _he_ isn't. So he can't be the Lord."

"Regardless, we do not trust him, we dare not," Hypatia turned back to Hayate, studying her fiercly, "We do not know how he will react to finding another person here, as we have never allowed him to detect our presence. You, Yagami-san, we will be unable to hide for long."

"I'm sorry," Hayate offered, "I did not mean to cause trouble, or trespass. I am lost, and only want to find my way home. But, my magic is not working properly..."

"You use Mid-type magic, according to Beaudicea. Is this correct?"

"I... I believe so," Hayate said. She had heard Chrono refer to Mid and Velka type magics before, but she had never really understood the difference, aside from the cartridge systems Signum and Shamal refused to allow her to use. They claimed to think she would take too many risks, with it's boost power available.

"And you were still able to use your magic here?"

Hayate shrugged uncomfortably, "A little. It isn't working right, something is disturbing it."

Another look passed between the sisters, this one longer lasting, and involving several expressions, almost a discussion without words. Hypatia turned back to Hayate, and told her, "Then, you represent two impossibilities, Mistress Hayate. Most obviously, Mid-type magic does not work here, no one before you has managed it. This place is structured differently, built upon different principles of magic, what the Lady referred to as Deva-type magic, though that descriptor oversimplifies the situation rather drastically. Even _he_ cannot use Mid-type magic here, though his skills with Deva-type are good enough for him to get by, and to threaten us.

"The second impossibility, and more worrisome, is the fact of your presence here. To reach this place, one must first know the way, but to know the way, one must first find this place. It is a paradox, structured by the Lady to guard her secrets. Yet you are here, by way of Mid-type magic, and have no knowledge of this place."

Confused that they were not questioning that further, Hayate asked, "How do you know I am not lying?"

Hypatia merely smiled serenly. Beaudicea, however, demanded, "Tell me your age. Lie about it."

Blinking, Hayate decided to tell them something outrageous, settling on fifty. "Sixteen."

Beaudicea returned her surprised look with an urchin grin, "Can't lie here, '... and only truth shall be spoken within these walls.' One of the Lady's first commandments, set into the stones themselves. Even _he_ can't lie here," she got a curious look on her face, then added, "of course, he does _curse_ a lot. Foulest mouth I've heard since the Lady was here."

"Only when you do not listen to yourself, sister," Hypatia muttered. "However, she is correct. Even we cannot lie, in this place. Only the Lady could, though I am uncertain if she ever realized it."

Hayate nodded, only half her concentration on the conversation now. The rest was scouring through herself for any sign of the spell that had bound her. While it seemed innocuous, being unable to lie when she had no intention of doing so, the idea of a spell she had not detected affecting her was disturbing. _Reinforce? Can you please initiate a full self diagnostic and an overview user diagnostic?_ Neither of those would be noticed by her hosts.

_Yes, Mistress,_ Reinforce replied mentally, and Hayate felt the stirrings of her power flowing again.

Aloud, Hayate asked, "Now that I'm here, can I get home again? My Knights are worried about me. They are probably panicking by now."

"They may believe you are dead," Hypatia said.

"No," Hayate shook her head, "So long as I live, they will stand before me, and I will stand behind them. Just like I know they are still alive, they will know I am still alive."

"Are you certain you _are_ still alive?"

That threw Hayate for a loop, and she almost fell out of the chair. She had never even considered that possibility, it simply had not occurred to her. But as her heart began racing, her mind worked over the past days, and she shook her head. "I believe I am. If I were not, I would either feel much better, or much worse, ne? And so long as I have Reinforce, I am confident that I am not dead." She smiled sadly, "While I like to think her older sister had a soul that lives on, this current incarnation is a device only, however advanced."

Hypatia nodded, "Good, you still hold to hope. In that case, Mistress of the Night Sky, there is a chance of getting you home. But to do that, I need to know everything about how you came to be here. What you remember of your arrival, what you were doing immediately before, everything."

Reinforce interrupted her, whispering in her mind, _Mistress, I can detect no anomalies, in you or myself._

"All right," Hayate answered both Reinforce and Hypatia, shelving her concerns temporarily. Getting home was more important than finding out what was affecting her here. She had figured explanations would be necessary, and most of her thinking while eating had been on this subject, so she immediately began, "My Knights and I were pursuing pirates..." She explained for another hour, describing tactics for Beaudicea, spells for Hypatia, and her Knights for all of them. When she came to the end, to the man in the crystal, and its cracking, the sisters were silent, listening with rapt attention.

When she finished, Hypatia asked, "You are certain in your description of him? Bureau uniform, in pure white?" Hayate nodded, and Hypatia continued, "did he have a sword, a European style broadsword?"

Hayate shook her head, "No, he had no weapon or device."

"And your description of the feel of his power, that is accurate?"

"As accurate as I can remember." The sisters shared another look, saddened and worried, and Hayate asked, "Ano, what is wrong?"

Beaudicea answered without looking away from Hypatia, "That was the Lord, the Lady's husband. We never met him, but the description, the uniform. That is the Lord..."

Hypatia finished, "... dressed in funeral colors, without the Sword of the Night."

"This is bad."

"I would say serious."

"We don't have a choice."

"Desperate times..."

"... call for desperate measures."

The two of them turned as one to look at Hayate, and she suddenly felt very alone and vulnerable. Gone was the polite interest Hypatia had shown, and the open good spirits of Beaudicea. Instead, they were looking at her with utter dispassion, like scientists staring at an inactive device. Hayate lunged to her feet, swinging Reinforce in front of her. "I... I don't know what you're..."

She was cut off by Beaudicea, who simply appeared behind her, one arm coming over Hayate's shoulder to pull Reinforce aside, the other settling between Hayate's shoulder-blades. She tried to twist, but found her hands and feet already bound. The speed of it was terrifying, the fact that she felt almost nothing in terms of magical power was worse.

Hypatia stood and walked over at a more normal pace, completing the bindings that held Hayate in place. "Please...," Hayate whispered, "I have done nothing to you."

Hypatia cupped her chin, looking at her sadly. "No, you have not," she agreed, "but I am afraid that you represent our only option. The Lord marches towards death and destruction. He knows the source of his pain, but not the cure, and we cannot show him. We cannot leave, and we no longer have the luxury of time to find an easier road to fulfill our purpose. We were created, in the moment of our Lady's death, to preserve her greatest discovery, and we need the Lord to do that. We have no choice. We are terribly sorry, Mistress of the Night Sky, but we have no choice."

Hypatia's hand settled on Hayate's chest, and this time she felt the power stirring, felt the two sisters reaching in towards her linker core, and she began struggling wildly. "NO! You can't take it! You can't do this to me! Reinforce, Ragnarok Area Strike!" Her sigil appeared around her, flickering but building, and it became a race, between her power and theirs. She struggled against the sisters, holding tight to her power and feeding it to Reinforce. The three white spheres grew rapidly, arcs of lightning leaping between them.

Then Hypatia gestured, passing her free hand through one of the spheres, and all three of them shattered. The shock of it almost knocked Hayate out, as the power she had poured in to the spell was suddenly feeding into Hypatia, answering _her_ command instead of Hayate's.

As pain exploded in her chest and white washed over her vision, she heard Beaudicea, "Through the dragon or up the pillar of light, either way will lead you home, if you have the strength to follow them."

------------------------------

Akira's second attack on Earth was a complete surprise, two days after Stonehenge. One minute, he was several dimensions and more light years away, the next he was over T'ai Shan. The lack of warning had caught everyone off guard, and he had retrieved the Sword of Light's hilt without opposition. Nanoha and the rest had been aboard the Asura, recovering from the battle over Stonehenge and trying to plan for the next.

Before complete reports were even available, Shamal had teleported the Knights to the Temple of the Jade Emperor on top of the mountain. Akira had not had another Hellfire Hurricane ready, but he had been prepared nonetheless. The four of them had not managed to complete their transfer before he attacked, the strike back-feeding somehow into _Asura_'s personnel spaces and sensor systems. As when they first encountered him, he appeared more interested in escape and evasion, but he still managed to injure Signum, Vita and Shamal, and almost killed Zafira, before Chrono led the rest of his forces as reinforcements, and Akira fled again.

Shamal, Yuuno and Aria had been unable to explain how he managed to transfer the distance so quickly, so suddenly. The three of them had been taking turns to track him, and Yuuno, who had the duty when the attack came, was certain, until the moment sensors aboard _Asura _and _Valkyrie _visually detected him, that Akira was over a day away. His departure from the mountain, recorded by both ships, showed him literally slicing a rip in reality with the Hellblade, and stepping through it. The resultant dimensional instability had required hours to repair.

After that, Chrono was taking no more chances. He had departed with the _Asura_, to recover the reinforcements the Bureau was assembling for them, taking Zafira with him for medical attention, but leaving the other Velka Knights aboard _Valkyrie _to recover. The entire remaining uninjured force was gathered at Ankor, camped out literally on top of the blade from the Sword of Light's tomb, with the _Valkyrie_ in high orbit directly overhead. Whenever Akira came for the blade, they would all be on site, and ready for him. This time there would be no piece-meal arrivals, no divided attack. Chrono had even taken the unprecedented step of contacting local non-magical authorities and convincing them to seal the area against everyone, including not just the tourists, but the archaeologists and soldiers who were normally a semi-permanent fixture. The destruction at Stonehenge and T'ian Shan had been too great for him to risk another barrier failure with civilians present.

Between what they had observed of him, Admiral Kriegsen's information, and her own knowledge of magic, Nanoha was uncertain if they could stand up to him, and the worry was gnawing at her. A day after the battle over T'ai Shan, she found Fate sitting atop the central spear-point dome of Ankor Watt, keeping watch. She flew up to join her friend, settling on the next tier down.

"Nanoha-chan," Fate whispered, brooding at the eastern horizon as the sun set behind them.

"What's worrying you, Fate-chan?" She could tell something was, "You haven't said two words since we got here." She grunted once, and shook her head, but Nanoha persisted, "Fate-chan, what is it?"

Fate sighed and looked at her friend, "I don't know if we can do this, Nanoha-chan. You know how strong Signum and the others are, but he has defeated them three times. Three times, Nanoha-chan. The attack he used at Stonehenge, the Hellfire Hurricane. He created a dimensional dislocation, used it, directed it, as no one we have ever faced could. I know Shamal-san and Aria-san say it was pre-generated, before he even arrived at the site, but still. He keeps pulling new tricks out of his sleeve, new skills, new levels of power. We can't predict him, but he knows everything we will try."

"This isn't like you, Fate-chan," Nanoha said, "you never give up. _We_ never give up."

"I haven't given up," she countered, "but I've never fought an enemy like this. There is no joy in fighting him, no test of skills, or communication, only..." She paused, and Nanoha gave her a moment to order her thoughts. "Our hardest fight before was the Book of Darkness. Do you remember how much trouble we had, how hard we had to fight just hold our ground in that case? We have fought harder on this case already, with more resources, but we are falling further behind. I cannot get over his raw strength, either, his endurance. He fought alone against the four Velka Knights for _five minutes_, and still managed to summon that storm, pre-formed or not.

But mostly, what is bothering me about fighting him is the combination of power, intelligence, and remorselessness. He is deliberately killing people, Nanoha, and I have never encountered anyone like this. Signum, Amy-san and I analyzed the Soulbreaker, after the battle at Stonehenge. It is specifically crafted for each individual target. It won't do a thing against a non-living target, but it will kill whoever it does hit. That was what those attacks on the barrier were, he was sampling the individual mages' magic, preparing the Soulbreaker. He could have broken that barrier at any time, but he deliberately _murdered _ten mages. How are we supposed to fight something like that, with him holding Hayate-chan prisoner?"

"He is still just one man, Fate-cahn. At T'ai Shan and Stonehenge we pushed him to his limit, he ran from us, remember? We just have to grind him down, try to reach past his pain to find the man that used to be there. That is still there, somewhere."

"He left because he had what he came for."

"Because as strong as he is, we are stronger. He fears us, as much as we fear him."

Fate shook her head, "No, I don't think he is. From what Admiral Kriegsen said, Takashi never feared anything, and Akira is even more fearless. He is not afraid of us, though he probably..."

"I do not like him," Nanoha muttered without thinking.

Fate cut off, blinking at her confusedly for a moment. "None of us like Akira, Nanoha-chan."

She shook her head, "No, not Akira. He is deadly and dangerous, yes. I _fear_ him, but I don't _dislike _him. It is too easy to understand why he is doing this for me to hate him. I do not like Admiral Kriegsen. Something about him makes me uncomfortable."

Fate looked at her for a few moments, then nodded, "I know what you mean. He is so helpful, so long as he does not have to leave Headquaters, yet he also is demanding continuous updates on our situation. He issues orders, then pretends he is merely here to advise. He is up to something, but I do not know what, other than that it involves Akira and the Sword of Light. Now that you mention it, I am worried that he might be _helping _Akira, somehow."

Nanoha stared at Fate in shock. She disliked the Admiral, but did not think him that bad. "But... Akira is trying to kill him. He is Akira's _target_."

"But we have only the Admiral's word for that. From what Akira has said himself, he may be after anyone, even the Bureau as a whole. Remember, Signum says he did not grow hostile until he noticed her officer's badge. But even if Kriegsen is Akira's target, Kriegsen may be confident that someone else, someone like us, can stop him eventually."

"The Sword of Light," Yuuno offered, floating up to join them. "Kriegsen is probably after the Sword of Light. Remember how he said it 'would accept no master'? I think he would be interested in becoming its master. I have been accessing the Library through the _Valkyrie_'s downlinks, studying Sara's diaries and the _Deva_'s mission reports. He was honest enough regarding the diaries, I cannot make heads or tails of her magical notes, though I did find out why Akira keeps calling her 'Aoi'. Her family always called her 'Blue-eyes', Takashi shortened it to 'Aoi'."

Nanoha could not help smiling at the nickname, but Fate spoke first. "What about the Sword?"

"From what I can discover, it is fully sentient, fully self-aware, as the Tome of the Night Sky was. Self-aware, and possessed of its own Mid-type magical abilities. That would be where her reputed ability to use both her own magic and Mid-type magic came from – she used hers, the Sword used Mid-type. Also how she managed to 'use' two devices at once. The Sword was actually wielding itself. Her notes on the Sword of Night show that it was structurally the same as the Sword of Light, with only some stylistic differences to fit Takashi's magic better."

Fate's voice was filled with the wonder Nanoha felt on hearing that, "The devices had their own linker cores?"

Yuuno nodded, "It would appear so. There are also some hints that the _Swords _were creating new techniques, that they really were living beings in their own right, in every way."

"Spirits preserve us," Chrono whispered, "that's incredible potential. She created an entirely new form of life?"

"I can't prove it," Yuuno cautioned, "but yes, that is how I read the reports and her notes."

"Anyone with that at their disposal..." Chrono trailed off.

"That would explain why we keep having problems with him," Nanoha said, "we were fighting two mages at once, but did not know it."

"Probably," Fate agreed. "This will definitely help with planning to defend Ankor."

Nanoha's reply was cut off by a hideous tearing sound, followed almost immediately by a bolt of black lightning. It crashed down from above, striking the top of Ankor Watt's dome, mere feet away. She just had time for a scream, to hear Fate's and Yuuno's matching yells, before she was blown clear of the dome.

Reactions honed by years experience, and almost as many years training others in combat, allowed her to arrest her plummeting fall a second later, summoning Raging Heart to hand as she spun vertical, looking for the target she knew was above. Distantly, she heard shouts from below as the rest of the force reacted, but she could not see Fate or Yuuno, which meant she had to plan on facing Akira alone.

He was hovering over the dome, utterly calm, completely relaxed, as emotionless as a mountain. The Hellblade was held negligently in one hand, the other was extended downwards, towards the shattered dome of the ancient temple. Nanoha realized he was trying to crack the seal around the Sword of Light, and attacked. Reaching for the minds of her mages, she told them, probably unnecessarily, _Akira is here! Move out! Valkyrie squad, form a barrier as quick as you can. Everyone else, take flight and hit him with everything you've got. Valkyrie, we're going to need the Vita and the rest._ She wanted to send someone to check on Yuuno and Fate, since she could not tell if her commands reached them or not, but there was no time. She had to trust that her two best friends were all right.

"Raging Heart! Divine Buster Barrage!" Power flowed through her, into her device, and Akira turned his attention to her, curious rather than concerned. The ring of sigils appeared, five spheres of energy forming like points around a star, and she felt a flash of annoyance as he merely cocked his head. "Shoot!"

Five bolts leapt out from around her, arcing away slightly before converging on the white-clad mage. He did not even move, merely stood there until all five impacted simultaneously. For a moment, he vanished in a cloud of smoke and light. Nanoha did not wait, however, flying down and to her left to circle his position. She wanted to get in a position to draw his attention away from where the others would come out of the temple, but not risk having a miss hit them.

Mentally, she continued her orders, marshalling the forces on hand, and praying that Fate had been wrong, that they were strong enough to stand up to him.

------------------------------

Yuuno shook his head, groaning in pain. Whatever had hit him had thrown him through a stone wall, and that was never fun, even when he was prepared for it, as he had not been. Hauling himself out of the piled rubble, he shook his head to clear it, then realized the rumbling he heard was not ringing in his ears or still-falling debris, but the thunder of battle.

_Akira,_ he realized immediately, also realizing what had happened to him. Looking about, he found the hole in the wall he had made, and flew back out through it. Around him, he could sense the building containment barrier, and nodded agreement. Akira could probably break it, but they had to take some steps to try and keep this fight from destroying the ancient city completely. Above, he could see the Lieze twins struggling to hold a binding on Akira, as Nanoha, Fate and Arf tried to break through his defenses with more direct attacks.

_Guess we were right about the sword,_ Yuuno thought, noting that while Akira himself appeared bound, there were still spells coming off the blade. _Since the Lieze twins have him, I guess that makes my target the sword._ Reaching out mentally, he found the telepathic frequency the others were on, and told them, _Sorry I'm late. Nanoha-chan, I'll try to bind his sword. Lotte, Aria, try to catch him in a Struggle Bind, I will do the same with the Hellblade._

_Roger,_ Aria replied.

Nanoha shot him a smile, but was too busy struggling to hold a shield against another strike of black lightning. He smiled back, the set to work, building the binding from the ground up as rapidly as possible. The sword made a difficult target, but Yuuno was an expert at bindings, and had all the motivation any man could have. The green sigils appeared beneath him, followed a moment later by green chains of power that lashed out, striking the Hellblade as it came around for another attack.

_Struggle Bind,_ he thought with a distant part of his mind, _what effect will a binding that cancels all magic have on a being made entirely of magic?_

The binding struck, and three chains wrapped around the black blade, twining tight in an instant. Akira's head whipped around, all his attention instantly focusing on Yuuno, and the uncaring calm vanished, replaced by a focused anger that caused Yuuno flinch back slightly. His binding did not weaken, however. Fear alone was not a strong enough counter to his existing motivation. The problem, he realized immediately as Akira began to fight back, was that his Struggle Bind would not last very long.

As Akira began to wrench the Hellblade, trying to free it of its bindings and ignoring those holding him, Yuuno began forming a second binding, an improved version of Struggle Bind, but one requiring more power and more time to form. He was unsure he would be able to complete it, until he saw Aria's Struggle Bind wrap around Akira from the other side, and he breathed a mental sigh of relief.

Only to mentally stumble as Akira simply vanished. The Struggle Bind settled into place, blue-white lines wrapped around him like ivy on a tree, as far as Yuuno could tell it was perfectly executed. But the instant the binding completed, Akira simply ceased to be there, vanishing in a flash of energy particles that slowly drifted downwards, like sparks from a firecracker, leaving the Hellblade floating in Yuuno's binding.

The six of them froze for a few seconds, unable to believe what they had just seen, then slowly, carefully, Nanoha and the others began closing on the Hellblade to investigate, wary of what sort of trap this had become. Unconsciously, Yuuno relaxed the binding ever so slightly as the others closed. The Hellblade could not do anything with no one to wield it

Lotte reached the blade first, but made no move to touch it. She merely moved close, examining the space around it, more than the blade itself. _No sign of him,_ she reported, _it's like he was never here._

_How is that possible,_ Fate asked, confused.

_Struggle Bind cancels magic,_ Yuuno told her, thinking aloud, then realized, _Kuso, we've been fighting an illusion! He's somewhere else!_

Nanoha reacted first, spinning to the barrier and ordering, _Valkyrie squad, check in, all of you! Everyone else, find him! Aria, Yuuno, you're our best chance for that._

_Arf,_ he asked, _can you take over the binding on the Hellblade?_

_But Akira's not here to wield it..._

Yuuno blinked, then remembered she had missed the conversation atop the dome. He was so used to her always being by Fate's side, he forgot she was not there. _We think it can wield itself, magically at least._

_On it,_ she replied, and began wrapping the blade in her own Chain Bind.

For a moment, as her binding formed, it interfered with his. He had to weaken and pull back his own, lest Struggle Bind's innate counter-magic unmake Arf's binding spell. In the instant between his retreat and Arf's securing the blade, Akira struck. As he had at Stonehenge, he seemed to flow out of the blade, though with lightning speed this time, and before Yuuno or Arf could shout a warning, he wrenched the Hellblade free and struck with vicious speed, slashing Aria across the back.

The familiar's cry of pain as she fell away was matched a moment later by Lotte's as a pulse of darkness leapt from Akira's hand to catch her full in the chest, throwing her through one of the lesser stone domes of Ankor Watt. Then there was nothing but clashing light and dark as Fate and Nanoha reacted with their own attacks.

Yuuno would never remember the next few minutes very clearly, despite studying _Valkyrie_'s recordings. Lotte had her hands full keeping Aria alive, thought Yuuno was vaguely surprised, when he thought about it later, that Akira directed no attacks at the pair. That left him and Arf to support Nanoha and Fate as the two powerful girls tried to subdue Akira by main force. He spun bindings and barriers, forcing hesitations in some of Akira's attacks, protecting Nanoha from others she did not have time or attention to answer herself. Such actions were second nature to him, by now. Supporting Nanoha was something he could normally do without thinking. Akira's sophistication, power, and unpredictable magic made him a demanding opponent, and as the Velka had discovered previously, the four of them were just enough to hold even with someone who had more than earned the title Breaker of Ships.

Shortly after Shamal, Signum and Vita arrived outside the barrier, and began preparing to transport through it, he noticed a shift in the fight. Fate redoubled her efforts, as Nanoha drew back slightly. He saw Excelion forming, then saw something more terrifying. Akira blasted aside Fate's attacks with a wide-area spell, then flashed behind Nanoha.

_Nanoha! Behind you!_ He rushed to get there in time, praying as his heart constricted painfully. She spun, but Akira was already striking, viper quick. The Hellblade swept Raging Heart aside, and a flickering twist sent the device spinning into the jungle. Yuuno could see the blackness gathering around the cross-guard, and, as Nanoha froze in shock, shouted again, _Nanoha!_

Blackness leapt from the Hellblade, and he heard one terrifying word roll off Akira's tongue, "Soulbreaker," before darkness crashed in around him, a cacophony of terror and agony that washed the world away.


	8. 07 Devestation

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter Seven – Devastation

"Soulbreaker." The grating voice, laden with sorrow and anger chilled her to the bone. The darkness sweeping down that hideous blade was nothing next to the voice, though her conscious mind was fully aware that it was her death. The absolute coldness in those eyes, and that voice, affected her on a primal level reason alone could not overcome.

Then green flash and tan blur swept in front of her, intercepting the black wave flowing down the Hellblade. Before she could register the change, something heavy slammed into her, and then Akira's icy visage vanished into darkness. She caught the mass that struck her instinctively, tumbling away as a terrifying chill numbed her bones and mind. She wasn't sure if she screamed, of if it was someone else, or both. She heard a crash of thunder, another scream that was definitely some else's, but she was too busy stabilizing her flight. Unconsciously, she held on to whatever had hit her, not realizing until she came to a stop that it was Yuuno.

"Y… Yuuno… kun?" Her voice was a terrified whisper, staring at his still face in horrified shock, "Wh... wha... why did you..."

Fate's shriek of rage, amplified by Bardiche's thunder drowned her out, as Nanoha's friend attacked Akira on her own. Nanoha had no attention to spare, focused on Yuuno, trembling in fear at what she would find as she reached for his wrist. The mages at Stonehenge had died instantly, but she could still see his chest rising and falling, still sense the life within him fading away. It took her only a few seconds to check his vitals, to verify that he was still alive, but she could not get him to wake without magic, could not determine how he was injured. Without Raging Heart, she could only channel so much power, only control so much at once, but what she had she poured into Yuuno, trying to heal him of something she could not describe, even though her healing training had never gone beyond basic first aid.

"Stop." The order rolled over the ruins, just as cold and emotionless as everything else Akira had said this day.

Nanoha looked up, finding him still floating where he had attacked her from. He was staring at her, ignoring Fate despite holding Bardiche in a bind with the Hellblade. A moment later, she realized he was not looking at her, but at Yuuno. She pulled the unconscious boy in tighter, praying Vita and the others would teleport in before he struck again.

"I am unwilling to do to another what was done to me," Akira informed them. "Thus, I will give you this one chance, girl, to take the boy and flee. He will require highly skilled psychological help to recover from a Soulbreaker, even one not crafted for him. The sooner he receives it, the better he will fare."

Clutching Yuuno tighter, Nanoha nodded. _Retreat, Fate-chan, _she sent mentally_, Aria and Lieze are down, now Yuuno is out, and ah... I..._

_I understand,_ Fate replied. _I will pursue him with Signum and the others. _Fate disengaged and flitted between Nanoha and Akira, blocking Akira's advance. Arf also backed off, moving to support her mistress. The four of them settled towards the ruins below, and Akira turned his attention away, apparently ignoring them.

Nanoha found Raging Heart, speared into the ground in the middle of the great square before Ankor Watt, and called up everything Shamal had ever even mentioned about healing, channeling power through her device to try and heal Yuuno as best she could. A thunderous explosion drew her attention momentarily, but Fate threw up a shield as stone fragments from the ancient temple rained down on the area. Akira, floating above, merely held out his hand over the rubble pile. Nanoha turned her attention back to Yuuno, more concerned with his condition than Akira's retrieval of the Sword of Light's blade.

Signum, Vita and Shamal teleported in moments later, just in time to watch Akira vanish into another rip in the fabric of reality. Nanoha, Fate and Arf continued their struggle to preserve Yuuno's life until Shamal and the _Valkyrie_'s medical staff took over.

------------------------------

The rumble of thunder brought Hayate back to herself, a distant sound she had not heard since entering the fortress. She groaned, more from tiredness than pain, and struggled to sit up, pushing off the hard surface she was lying on. She felt somewhat disoriented, opening her eyes to find herself once again under the open sky, staring at the dark, low clouds.

"What did those two do to me?" She wondered at that for a moment, then looked around and realized that, whatever they had done to her, worse had apparently been done to them. She was lying in the center of a wide expanse of smooth stone, a level surface over a hundred meters across. The only other object she could see was a stand mirror, towards the center of the area. The most disturbing part was the view beyond the cleared area – at the edge of the smooth rock platform, she could see the ruined city which had surrounded the fortress, but no sign of that hulking edifice.

"Spirits," she whispered, standing slowly and looking around, "what did they do?" There was no trace of the fortress, save the pedestal itself. The surface was polished, without crack or line, so smooth Hayate had trouble standing on it – her feet kept slipping slightly. "Reinforce, what happened?"

The silence that greeted that question sent a chill of fear through her, as she realized Reinforce was not in her hand. Patting herself down quickly, she almost missed the tinkling sound of metal on stone amongst the rustle of cloth. Reinforce, collapsed back into her inactive pendant form, lay on the stone at her feet. Carefully, hands shaking, Hayate knelt and picked up the device, then ordered, "Reinforce, set up."

Nothing happened.

For a moment, she almost panicked, pleading, "Please, Reinforce, _set up_!" Again nothing happened, but the nearly crying tone of her own voice, and the quivering feeling of fragility caused her to pause. Closing her fist around the dormant device, and sucking in a deep breath, she ordered herself, "Hold it together, Hayate. Multiple magical shocks in this short a time frame, I've been rendered unconscious twice, she's probably damaged. I'll have to re-initialize her." The logic, and the sound of her own voice, helped steady her nerves, and she took another moment to concentrate on that.

Turning all her attention inward, as the original Reinforce had taught her, she listened for her own heart. "Awaken the holy gale," she whispered, "blessed wind, Reinforce!" It was different, she knew before she spoke, but it fit so perfectly she could not find anything else.

The metal pendant in her hand shivered, then began glowing a golden hue that quickly shifted to blinding white. Watching it, squinting through the glare, Hayate felt almost overwhelming relief as the pendant transformed, pulling in material from _elsewhere_, building the staff that had supported her efforts for so long it was now like a part of her. But this was not her Reinforce forming, not the cruciform headpiece on a plain staff she was used to.

When the glowing energy of awakening cleared, Hayate could only stare in surprise. Reinforce's basic cruciform shape was retained, but the circular bar around the points was gone. Two more spear-tips appeared, at right angles from the original three to describe a full sphere, and the golden metal had shifted to a pure white as blinding as the light had been. The staff was shorter, as well, and now had a matching headpiece on the lower end. Most disconcertingly of all, ten small gemstones, each a different shade, floated beyond the spear-tips, moving independently when she spun the staff in her hands. Unable to believe her eyes, she asked, "R... Reinforce?"

"Yes, Mistress?" Reinforce's holo-persona appeared, head cocked to one side as she regarded her mistress curiously. At least the hologram remained the same.

"Wha... what happened to you?"

Reinforce blinked at her, then turned to regard herself, then turned back. Crossing her arms, the miniature woman smiled brightly and pronounced, "Memory upgrade!"

"Memory upgrade?" Hayate could not believe that, the changes were far too extreme for something so simple. "How much memory?"

"Hypatia and Beaudicea," Reinforce answered immediately, "they showed me how to counter the interference from this place." Her miniature face became pensive for a moment, "they changed you, as well, Mistress, but I can't remember how. It wasn't included in what they gave me."

"They changed me?" She was getting tired of the seesaw of panic and relief, but things were happening too quickly for her to find a stable emotional footing. Trying to ignore the new worry, she concentrated, cupping her free hand and trying to channel power there from her linker core. Nothing happened. Not a glow, not a flicker, not even a tingle in her fingertips.

As she stared at her empty hand in shock, Reinforce said, "I can do that for you, Mistress." A moment later, a small glowing orb appeared, floating in her hand.

"I... I didn't feel a thing," Hayate whispered, "They... took it away from... me. They took my magic!"

"No, Mistress," Reinforce tried to be reassuring, "I couldn't do that without your magic, Mistress. Maybe they just changed..." she paused, then continued in a different tone, "Stop panicking, little one, and stop trying so hard to do what you always did. Have faith in yourself and in the universe that loves you." Hayate looked up from her hand, and found that, instead of her friend Reinforce, a miniature version of Hypatia was floating next to her staff.

Tensing her grip and looming over the hologram, Hayate demanded, "What did you do to me? Why did you do it?"

The hologram did not even look at her, continuing to stare in the same direction, "The powers of the universe flow and warp in their own ways. The Lady understood this, and how a mage's linker core is used to alter that flow. She also understood how to ride the flow of the universe, to work with it to achieve ever greater results. You know of what I speak. Flow with the universe, and it will answer your need eagerly." The hologram flickered, then wavered into a generalized glow, before settling back down as Reinforce again. The hologram looked around wildly for a second, then up at Hayate, eyes wide with fright. "What happened, Mistress? Where did I go?"

Sighing, Hayate relaxed her grip. "Hypatia left a message," she realized, "and used you to deliver it."

"Did it help, Mistress?"

"I don't know," Hayate said, thinking the message over. "Flow with the universe? How do I do that?" She contemplated for a while, pacing around the flat stone platform. She had picked up the habit, since she regained the use of her legs, of thinking on her feet. It drove Chrono and Yuuno insane, but she rarely noticed. Now, focused totally inwards, she meandered across the platform. _Flow with the universe? There is something familiar about that, something I can almost get._

She almost had it when something loomed in her path and she jerked to a halt, swinging Reinforce in front of her defensively by instinct. Then she sighed and slapped herself lightly on the forehead. "Mirror, Hayate, it's just a mirror." She was standing in front of it, and the looming figure was nothing more than her own reflection, caught in a reflective surface twice her size. The mirror itself was flawed, oddly distorted by a strange rippled effect that varied over its surface. The frame, however, was quite nice, dark wood, mounted on a pivot axel in a heavy metal base, and carved with mystic symbols. Half of them she recognized as standard Bureau iconography, rather different from what she and her Knights used, though similar to Nanoha's and Fate's. The other half, however, caught her attention for their simplicity and clarity. A collection of lines and dots, rather than complicated sigils, they combined to form strange symbols that she found herself almost recognizing.

She found one at the nadir of the mirror, a dot within a circle, with arms curving counter-clockwise off the circle's cardinal points, each ending in another dot. Staring at it, she found her head twisting in the direction of the arms, and she suddenly felt the tingle of a building magical charge, not just in her finger tips, but all over. A moment later, as she stepped back from the mirror and looked at her outstretched arms, wild power began flowing off her in a strange aura-like effect, tendrils growing and twisting out towards the mirror. The first touched the frame exactly on the symbol she had been staring at, and the ripples on the mirror surface suddenly intensified. They flowed and grew, shifting and shimmering like a puddle next to a bass speaker. A moment later, as Hayate felt the power growing stronger around her, it flashed into stillness, and she found herself staring not at her reflection, but at another place entirely.

Her first thought was that someone was more than a little obsessed. Pictures of a woman, of various sizes, adorned the walls, and she recognized all of them as the woman she had seen carved on the stone slab in the ruins. The pictures here showed a different side of her, however. She was laughing, smiling, working, even sleeping in a couple. Every free centimeter of wall that Hayate could see was covered in pictures of that same woman, and almost all held only her, no one else. A small bookcase held several volumes, but she could not make out their titles, and a larger desk held both a computer terminal and stacks of documents.

She almost reached out to touch the mirror, hoping she could step through to where it was, when she saw something else. There was a door, barely in view of the mirror, and it was not covered in pictures. It was covered in wardings, symbols indicating both Mid-type, and what she now thought to be the Deva-type Hypatia had mentioned, and she recognized very few of them. All were powerful, and all were on the Bureau's list of illegal spells. One she recognized only because Signum had shown it to her, and told her never to approach within fifty meters of it, a distance Signum described as "it's lethal blast radius."

"I don't think I should be going there," she whispered, half afraid her voice would carry through the mirror and set off the wards. Beaudicea's last words came back to her, _Through the dragon, or up the pillar of light... _"I don't see a pillar of light," Hayate remarked, "so I guess we have to find the dragon, ne?"

"I don't like the sound of that, Mistress," Reniforce commented, "that thing was scary."

"Yes it was," Hayate agreed readily enough, it had terrified her. "But maybe what those sisters did to us will let us challenge it fairly. Sleipnir's Wings, please."

A second later, Reinforce said, "Umm, Mistress? I can't find it."

Hayate looked at her. By now she was getting beyond surprise, and was starting to get annoyed. "You can't find what?"

Reinforce looked abashed, face down, fingertips tapping together, "Umm... the spell, Mistress. Sleipnir's Wings. I know where it should be, but... I can't find it."

"You can't find Sleipnir's Wings? One of our oldest and most used spells?"

"G... gomen nasai, Mistress."

Hayate sighed, "It's not your fault, Reinforce. It's those sisters' fault, and if I ever figure out how, I'll take them to task for it. Can you find any flight spells? We need to get off this platform."

Reinforce was silent for a few moments, then smiled. "Yes, Mistress, I can find three – Flight of the Valkyrie, Lightwing, and Seraph. Lightwing is... not a good idea, Mistress. I think it's intended for... interstellar flight."

Hayate's eyes widened as she looked at Reinforce. Simple spaceflight, even for mages, required extensive life support, protective and drive systems. Interstellar flight was even more difficult, and Hayate had never heard of any single mage managing it. Teleportation could circumvent that, but to actually fly between the stars... "That's incredible," she said after a moment, "Remind me to mention it to Nanoha, later. For now, what about the other two?"

"I think Seraph is some sort of combat spell, Mistress. The other spells stored with it are. Flight of the Valkyrie seems to be the closest to Sleipnir's Wings, a basic flight spell."

"In that case, Flight of the Valkyrie, please."

"Ummm... I can't, Mistress. You have to shape the power. I can show you how..."

Information began pouring into Hayate's mind, and before she could process what Reinforce had said, she found herself acting. Power once again flowed through her, a strange tingling whole-body experience that again had her radiating white energy. This time, however, it flowed around her, up behind her shoulders. She felt a strange tugging sensation, then an instant of pins-and-needles accompanied by a thunderous rustle like canvas in a heavy wind. It was over in a moment, too fast for her to even begin to react, and then she was staggering a few steps.

Straightening up, shifting her shoulders felt odd, and she glanced back. Rising from her shoulders, from beneath her armor, were a pair of white feathered wings that shifted with her thoughts, rustling in reflection of her agitation. Voice quavering, she asked, "Reinforce?"

Reinforce's hologram was jumping in celebration, chanting, "It worked! It worked! Yay! It worked!"

"Reinforce!" Hayate had to shout to get her attention.

"It worked, Mistress! A brand new spell shaped all by you! It worked!"

"This is..."

"Flight of the Valkyrie! Your new flight spell! I showed you, you did it. It works, just like Hypatia thought it would."

Hayate shook her head roughly, trying to ignore the way her new wings shifted with the gesture. She could still feel her power running into the wings, somehow knew that they would vanish seamlessly when she wished them to, but it was still a strange and disturbing feeling. Magic was not supposed to change someone's physical structure so drastically so quickly and easily. Taking a few deep breaths, she steadied her nerves and turned her attention outwards.

"I guess it's time to go find a dragon, then," she said, and ran for the edge of the platform. Wings stretched wide, she leapt off the edge, and found herself gliding upwards. "While we look, Reinforce, why don't we review our new spells, shall we? I don't want any more surprises like Flight, though I have a sinking feeling there's worse in there, isn't there?"

------------------------------

Nanhoa sat in the hallway outside Yuuno's hospital room, wringing her hands in worry. Fate Arf sat to one side of her, Admiral Lindy to the other, the latter occasionally shifting as if to hug the girl she considered an apprentice and adopted daughter, before moving back to simply sitting. Doctors and nurses passed, intent on their own business, but Nanoha did not notice. The only attention she had on the outside world was focused on the door to Yuuno's room, where a pair of doctors were still struggling to determine what Akira's Soulbreaker had done to him.

Most of her attention was focused on the last battle, the fight where Yuuno was injured saving her. Where he almost died for her. She just could not work past that. Her feelings for him had been growing so slowly and subtly that she had never really noticed. Yuuno had simply always been there, had become a constant in her life, the ever-faithful source of support that she relied on without even realizing it. She had known, intellectually, that she loved him, and that he returned her feelings, and had allowed their relationship to simply progress, content with the way things were. Until he put himself between her and an unstoppable killing blow, one she should have protected him from.

That was the crux of her dilemma, the cause of her current pain. She was the stronger of their pair, she was the fighter, the warrior-mage. She knew he was capable, that he had taught her the basics and knew them well. She knew that in many areas his knowledge and skill far exceeded hers, that he was, by any measure, her equal and a responsible adult fully capable of making his own decisions. But for seven years, whenever they had fought side-by-side, she had been the combatant, and he had been the support. It had always been her job to protect him, to fight their opponents while he bound them, to take the blows he could not. Now, thanks to Akira, she felt like a complete and utter failure, and the fact that Yuuno chose to take that blow for her, that he moved on his own, only made her feel worse, left her feeling unworthy of such an action.

So now she sat, outside Yuuno's medical room in Bureau Headquarters, waiting, wringing her hands, and trying to come to grips with the sudden terrible vulnerability Akira had inflicted on her. Her closest friends sat with her, but more than anything right now, she wished her mother and father were there, to sit and wait with her, to reassure her as they had when she was a child, that everything would be right with the world. She could not understand how to deal with this pain, or how it had come to be inflicted upon her.

Chrono stopped at the turn in the hall, taking in the tableau before him, and shook his head sadly. Nanoha was visibly a wreck, curled around her tightly clenched hands, staring past them into nothing. Fate, Arf and his mother were clustered around her, alternately watching Nanoha and the door across the hall from them. His mother looked up after a moment, giving him a worried look and shaking her head. He understood her message clearly. No change, in any of their three patients. Aria was recovering well, her wounds merely physical, but Yuuno and Nanoha were worrying everyone.

Still, he steeled himself and walked down the corridor to join them, stopping just in front of Nanoha. She made no move to look up, did not acknowledge his presence in any way, so he crouched in front of her, taking her hands in his. "Nanoha," he said softly, trying to get her attention. Nothing, not even a twitch of the shaking hands in his grip. "You need to hold together, Nanoha. Yuuno will need you to be strong when he wakes. He will need to see that he succeeded."

"I failed him," she whispered, "I was supposed to protect him."

"Yuuno always protected you, Nanoha," Chrono told her, "you protected each other, that was always one of your greatest strengths. Don't begrudge him that strength, or that right. He will need to see he succeeded. If you don't show him that..."

The hiss of a door opening snapped her eyes up finally, but they swept past Chrono and over his shoulder. Chrono half turned, not letting go of Nanoha's now rock-still hands. A doctor was standing there, already holding up a hand to keep them from rushing the door. His face was gravely serious, but he made a calming gesture with one hand while code-locking the door with the other. "Scrya-san has been gravely injured," the doctor related, moving to sit in a space vacated by Fate.

"Is he..." Nanoha could barely get that out, choking on the rest of the question.

The doctor nodded, "He is physically alive and well, and will remain so. Mentally, things are rather more grave, but his condition is serious, not critical. Your efforts to stabilize him, Takamachi-san, Testarossa-san, were probably responsible for his continued survival."

The doctor leaned back, setting his head against the window behind the bench, a tired but satisfied look on his face. "As far as we can tell, the attack that hit him damaged his mind more than his body. It appears to attack the victim by forcing them to relive in an instant the most terrible and terrifying memories of their lives, amplifying them. The attack itself would not have killed him, but the cascade of emotions would have overloaded his body. Fortunately, it appears to have been poorly crafted."

"It was meant for me," Nanoha said, turning back to stare at her hands, "he took it in my place."

"That is why he is still alive, Nanoha," Chrono told her catching her chin and forcing her to meet his gaze, "it would have killed you as quickly as the mages at Stonehenge. Because Akira crafted it for you, Yuuno survived it."

"He will still require significant help," the doctor added, "and he will be quite some time in recovering. Physical trauma is relatively easy to repair, but mental trauma... sometimes it never heals completely. But, we have the best healers in the world here," one weathered hand settled on Nanoha's shoulder, "and the care of true friends will help him more than that. Scrya-san has every chance, especially with your continued assistance."

"Yes," Nanoha said, visibly struggling not to burst into tears. "Can I see him?"

"Doctor Jung has ordered him isolated for the time being. She will require several hours to complete her work, and after that will let you know. He is unconscious at the moment, allowing his mind to rest as much as possible, both to simplify Doctor Jung's work and to allow natural healing to begin. He must rest for now, Takamachi-san, but Doctor Jung has already given me a list of people she will need to assister her later, and your name heads that list."

When Nanoha could not get anything out, Chrono replied for her, "Thank you, Doctor."

"It is not a pleasure, seeing such damage never is, but you are welcome."

Before the Doctor could stand, someone shouted from down the hall, "Chrono! Chrono we have a problem!" Rising, Chrono was surprised to see Vita come barreling around the corner so fast she ricocheted off the far wall. "He's coming here! That murdering bastard is already coming here! To Headquarters!"

She barely slowed down in time to stop from ramming into him, and he had to catch her when she doubled over to catch her breath. "Akira's coming here? Why would he do that? He can't think to get the fourth piece out of the Secure Archives. It would take..."

"An admiral," Vita gasped out, before sucking in a deep breath and explaining, "Shamal detected the bastard in motion about twenty minutes ago, on course for Headquarters. Amy-san just told us as well that Admiral Kriegsen withdrew an unidentified lot from Secure Archives, Tier One, Vault Three, an hour ago. She said you'd know what that meant."

"The tiers match lost logia classes," Chrono said, surprised more by how unsurprised he was at this news. "Vault Three... only ten people can authorize access to that Vault. Vault Two requires multiple simultaneous authorizations from three First Admirals, and Vault One requires synchronized authorization from every First Admiral in the Bureau.

"He's moving the last piece," Vita said. "Is he _trying_ to get himself killed?"

"No, he's trying to activate the Sword of Light," Fate said, "and take it for himself."

Chrono shook his head, "No, Kriegsen is not after the Sword of Light. Powerful as it may be, he is not interested in power. Were that the case, he would be a First Admiral by now, and still have a device. He passed his to his son almost a decade ago. He's after Akira, but I have no idea how Kriegsen plans to deal with him. Vita, where's the piece being moved to?"

"A ship, in the builder's docks. You'll love this, it's called the _Novus Deva_ and was built to Admiral Kriegsen's specifications fourteen years ago specifically to transport class one lost logia, but has never left its builder's slip. The idiot's been planning something like this for years!"

"He knew Akira would be back," Chrono said, "and laid a trap for him. Vita, get the other Wolkenritter. Fate, Arf, with me. Nanoha..."

"I'm going with you, too, Chrono."

She was glaring at him, not angry, but determined. For a moment, he wanted to argue with her. He knew she was still unsteady, that she would be vulnerable, possibly even dangerous. But he trusted Nanoha like he trusted very few people, so he sighed and nodded, "Stay with Fate. Get to the bay now, but stay covert. Don't let anyone know you're there, not even Kriegsen. Mother and I will alert Headquarters security and get the response teams moving, then join you there. If Akira shows up... take him down, hard and fast." Vita was staring at him wide eyes and he shook his head, "I'm sorry, Vita, but we can't afford to take chances anymore. There are too many people here, too many who will die if we don't stop Akira. We will try to take him alive, but he must be prevented from completing the Sword of Light at any cost."

-----------------------------

"Ragnarok Breaker!"

"Morningstar's Wrath!"

It sounded oddly right, to Hayate, hearing Reinforce's voice and her own calling out different spells. It sounded even better when they simultaneously cried out, "_Shoot_!"

The triad of white spears were weaker than when Hayate had last cast the Ragnarok Breaker. Whatever Hypatia and Beaudicea had done to the device had apparently lowered the maximum power Reinforce could channel appreciably. It was still a terrifyingly powerful strike, as several deep craters in the rubble could not attest. Reinforce's efforts were also something of a sideshow, a distraction, to keep the dragon in one place.

Morningstar's Wrath was the real strike. Channeling power as she now did was becoming more familiar, but Hayate thought it would always feel strange – the immediacy of it, the sense of shivering excitement, was too wild. Channeling the power necessary for Morningstar's Wrath was almost enough to send her into a giggling hallucination, as a massive disc formed of pure white light appeared overhead, just beneath the low overcast. Guided by her hand, the center pinned downwards and the entire disc spiraled into a spear-point, that slammed point first into the center of the triangle described by Reinforce's Ragnarok Breaker.

The cloud of debris sent up by Reinforce's spell was blasted into thin vapor, replaced by a larger column of dust and ash, hiding the new crater from view.

In their search for the dragon, Hayate and Reinforce had made several startling and odd discoveries about the changes wrought by the two sisters. Of all the spells Hayate had developed after building Reinforce's current incarnation, only the attack and defense spells had been retained. None of the transport, detection, healing or communication spells had been retained. That last had been particularly vexing, as she had been rather proud of how well those spells, all her own work, allowed her to coordinate her Knights, even if none of them had been able to reach anyone since she arrived here. All of those spells that had been retained, however, were only usable by Reinforce. Hayate herself could no longer cast or power them. That had caused the surprise, as Reinforce proved able to power spells from her own resources, and after some experimentation, managed to summon forth what Hayate could only call a linker core.

Reinforce also appeared to be carrying around two separate libraries of spells, one for herself, and one for Hayate. Reinforce's attempt to list a synopsis had boggled Hayate's mind, the sheer number of spells, the interactions Reinforce suggested, all of it was too much. She had to focus, and given her course, she had settled for familiarizing herself with as many combat and defensive spells as possible. The dragon had proven previously to be all but immune to everything she could throw at it, but she and Reinforce were in much better shape now, and armed with what Hayate was coming to suspect was the same type of magic that had created the dragon in the first place.

Watching the dust settle, floating past the damaged area as slowly as she could manage, Hayate took a moment to grumble about the Flight of the Valkyrie spell. Beautiful as it no doubt was, she had found she could not hover any longer, and having to keep that in mind was an annoying distraction. She wondered if the other four flight spells Reinforce had found, on deeper search, would allow her to hover, but she had no time to test them now.

They had found the dragon after close to three hours of flying. Expectations aside, the black hide proved to blend easily into the grey rubble, and the beast apparently preferred to spend its time _under _rubble piles. They had caught it exiting a pile, slithering towards the valley edge on its own inscrutable errand. One pass had sufficed to get its attention, causing it to rear up hissing at the sky.

Hayate and Reinforce had started small, basic attacks to test the dragon's defenses. Aside from reflexes fit to turn an alley cat green with envy, the dragon proved once again to be impervious to lower-level magics. Despite being unable to hover, Hayate was quite grateful to be airborne again, as it gave her the advantage of time to evaluate her strikes. She could sweep in, unleash her spells, then slide away, all outside the dragon's reach. It had demonstrated some sort of breath weapon, a green cloud that might have been gas, might have been energy, but neither Hayate nor Reinforce could tell. It had no effect on the dragon or stone, but Hayate did not feel like getting close enough to find out what it was. She had quickly scaled up through both sets of attack spells, but only when she reached the highest level spells had the dragon demonstrated any reaction other than continued rage.

Now, watching the dust settle after the third strike of the Ragnarok/Morningstar combination, Hayate found herself hoping against hope that this would be enough.

Unfortunately, it was not. The dragon exploded out of the dust cloud, snaking along the ground at its surprisingly fast pace, still trying to pursue her despite being unable to reply to her attacks for over half an hour of bombardment. At least now it was limping.

"This is going to be more difficult than Beaudicea implied," Hayate muttered, watching the dragon pace her flight. "I really need to have a talk with that woman about her sense of proportion."

A rumble caught her attention, different from the thunder. Looking down, she realized the ground beneath her was shaking, the piles of rubble sifting themselves lower and spreading out. Dreading yet another anomaly, she asked, "What is happening now?" The dragon had stopped, and was staring back at the platform. Looking back herself, she realized it was sinking, dropping into the pit around it. The pit itself seemed to be falling inward as well.

A moment later, a shaft of sunlight appeared, touching the center of the platform, and Hayate's eyes went wide as Reinforce started caroling in joy, and knowledge flooded through her.

-----------------------------

The docking bay was almost pristine. The heavy lifting and assembly arms were drawn back to their cradles, most of the umbilicals had been drawn back, and the doors behind the _Novus Deva_ stood open to space. The boarding passages and cargo bay were similarly tidied up and emptied, with only a single carton sitting in the middle of the cargo bay floor, waiting for the ship's cargo-lighter to retrieve it, a pair of Bureau mages standing guard over it from the door to the ship.

As was his style, Akira made a simple entrance that still managed to be flamboyant. No fanfare, no warning, he simply walked through the wall separating the cargo bay from the cold vacuum of the docking bay, sword in hand. The advanced composite material of the wall, capable of withstanding the immense pressures of vacuum and a starship's engines without a mark, rippled and glowed at his passage, leaving a wavering pattern of metal and color like oil on water.

The two guards tensed when he appeared, and the Hellblade came level with them before he was even clear of the wall. But they stepped back, letting their devices fall to their sides. Eye's wide, fear written in every line of their faces and bodies, they remained where they were. Akira considered them for several seconds, then his gaze swept the rest of the bay, contemplating its stark sterility.

After a few moments, he spoke, "I warned you, girl. One chance is all I ever give. Stand against me now, and your lover's sacrifice will have been in vain."

The back wall of the chamber, around the doors to the rest of Headquarters, a wavering appeared in the air, before vanishing. Standing arrayed along the wall, devices ready and glowing with power, stood six mages and three familiars, all of them deadly serious. Chrono stepped forward, "We cannot let you take it, Akira, nor can we let you leave."

"Come to die for your fellow man, have you?" Akira's tone was vaguely mocking, as he continued, "I have trod that path, boy, and I assure you, the rewards are rather less than you have been led to believe. Go find someone more your level to play with."

"We've held you before, Akira," Chrono replied, "this time we'll bind you permanently."

"Not with a temporal barrier between us, you won't. Really, boy, if you aren't observant enough to notice things like that, how do you expect to defeat me?"

Chrono blinked, "What barrier?"

Akira gestured, a wave of shadow rolling from his hand. It stopped a meter or so from Chrono, slowing eerily before dissipating. "It allows light, speech, and air past, but nothing of a high enough energy to be damaging, and nothing beyond a certain mass limit. I'm surprised, though, the universe does not bend in such a manner easily, and it requires quite a bit more power than I thought you had."

"You always have under-estimated me, I'm afraid," Admiral Kriegsen told him, stepping out of the _Novus Deva_'s boarding tube. His hands were comfortably hidden in the pockets of his uniform, and no device was visible, but he was glowing a soft yellow color. "Guards, repair aboard. We will be departing shortly." The two men still 'guarding' the boarding tube nodded silently and marched aboard the ship, leaving the bay. Kriegsen waited for them to leave, then turned to Akira.

"It's been a long time, Takashi."

"Akira," the traitor rumbled, Hellblade now aimed squarely at the admiral.

Kriegesn considered the sword for a moment, then shook his head, "If you were going to kill me with that, you would have done it twenty years ago. You want the Sword of Light for that."

"And you think it will kill me, don't you," Akira murmured, "you're counting on that."

Kriegsen nodded slowly, "Basically, yes. Since I learned how to use Sara's magic..."

A black bolt of energy slammed into the wall by Kriegsen's head, the blast of debris catching him in its cloud momentarily. "You are not fit to speak her name," Akira growled, rage twisting his features momentarily."

Kriegsen shrugged agreement, then continued, "... I have a fair idea of what happened to you. I never did understand what she saw in you, Takashi, or why she would commit suicide to protect you."

"You've become so easy to predict, Kriegsen," Akira replied, smiling now. He walked over to the carton on the deck. Flashes of light caught his attention, and he chuckled at Signum, Fate and Nanoha, all staring at where their attacks had dissipated harmlessly. Looking back, he noticed Kriegsen sweating suddenly, and laughed louder. Cracking the carton with a thought, Akira reached within and found a small metal cap, with a long white tassel. Holding it in one hand, he turned back to Kriegsen, slinging the Hellblade over his shoulder. "You think the Sword of Light will kill me, and that will be that, don't you?"

"She would hate what you have become, the perversion you have made of her magic," Kriegsen answered. "Her device will react to you as she would have."

Akira smiled, summoning forth the incomplete Sword of Light with a negligent flick of his wrist. It was beautiful, a four foot length of steel curved in a beautiful arc. A small, simple tsuba of white jade separated the blade from the white-bound black of the grip. Only at the base, where the pommel-cap would fit, was there a jarring imperfection. "You're right you know," Akira told Kriegsen, taking the Sword in his right hand, the pommel-cap in his left, "it will kill me."

"Then why are you doing this?" Chrono was surprised, Nanoha had been so quiet throughout, not even joining in their planning discussions before Akira arrived. Now, she had a hand pressed against the temporal barrier, "Why are you trying to die when your wife struggled so hard to save your life? She would not want this!"

Akira looked at her, and shook his head, "My Aoi did not want many things. But she is dead, and I can never reach her again." He turned back to Kriegsen, "What I can do is ensure myself an escort into Hell, and justice for my Aoi's death. Your barrier will not hold when I die, Kriegsen." He smiled again, viciously, as he fitted the pommel-cap to the sword, "I've been building a store of energy within myself since the day Aoi died. It does nothing, it is not contained or controlled, it is simply a storage place of power, energy built up over decades, now. Small portions of it, siphoned carefully, have sufficed to deal with these children, but when I die, it will all be released at once. Even Headquarters cannot survive this, and now..."

He paused a moment, then began a chant, "Hope given form, Life given song," the blade began to glow a soft white color. Kriegsen cursed, and began shaping a spell, and even those behind Kriegsen's barrier began attacking it. "I call you to my side," He raised the blade, aiming its tip at Kriegsen. "Your presence to my hand, your power to my defense," The light was blinding now, washing away anything until no one present could even see their own hands. Most of them had to turn away, and the last thing either Akira or Chrono saw was Nanoha, standing behind a circular barrier, watching Akira through falling tears. _"Sword of Light!"_

-----------------------------

Sheo Darren – Good to know you're still reading, thanks for your attention & time. Unfortunately… I can't answer most of your questions just yet. Sorry, but all shall be revealed as the story continues. Some of them (and some early questions from others) were answered in this chapter, even if indirectly, but the rest should be answered before I wrap this up. I have to admit, however, that Hayate was not actually supposed to be in this story, not much at least. I'd originally intended it to focus on Nanoha and Fate and their search for Hayate, and instead have found it switching about. Oh well, 'all's well that ends well,' I guess. And yes, I planned from Confusion to re-use the end of Awakening, though swapping it to Yuuno's point of view was a last minute swap. I'm kinda proud I managed to remember it and hold to it that well, actually - normally sticking to old notes and plans is next to impossible for me.


	9. 08 Justice

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Chapter Eight – Justice

The light was blinding now, a pure whiteness the washed away shadows and shapes, bright enough to bring tears to her eyes. But Hayate strove onwards, striving to reach the top of that pillar of light as quickly as she possibly could. The scorching heat, the turbulent air, the glorious light, all of it beat at her in unsteady unpredictable waves, causing her course to tumble and veer, but the column was wide and her goal was within reach. All she had to do, she knew, was persevere, and she would be home. She had never lacked for strength of will, even before the Tome of the Night Sky woke, and whatever she had lost or gained, whatever had happened to her in this strange place, she had not lost that indomitable will.

She flew higher, striving for something she could not see, but knew was there for the grasping.

------------------------------

_"Sword of Light!"_

Akira was lost in the glare, then Admiral Kriegsen. Chrono was forced to block his eyes with a raised hand, and the last thing he saw before the terrible radiance blinded him was Nanoha. She was standing behind her Round Shield, staring into the light, tears rolling down her eyes. He could not tell if they were tears of sorrow, or tears of pain from the light. The thought that they might have been tears of fear never crossed his mind. Nanoha never showed that sort of fear.

For a few moments, he could see nothing but white, even through his closed eyelids, and despite the shields he and Durandel were generating, he thought he was about to die. Then the light faded, the blinding white on his eyelids fading to red, to black, and he opened his eyes, blinking back tears of his own. Looking up and around, he found the last thing he had expected. Fate, Arf, Shamal, Signum, Vita and Zafira were all still standing where they had been, behind their commingled shields, blinking away their blindness even as he was. Kriegsen was slumped against a wall, still conscious and even now standing, but similarly recovering from blindness. Nanoha was not even behind a shield any longer, she was merely staring as she had been before, but now with a mixture of shock and joy on her face.

Looking where her gaze led, he felt those emotions himself. Standing a meter from Akira, holding a strangely double-ended staff in one hand, and the Sword of Light in the other, blocking Akira's Hellblade, was his missing mage.

"Hayate!" the cry came from ten throats at once, and the only thing that checked a mad rush for her was her outthrust hand, Reinforce held crosswise.

------------------------------

Finding herself in a docking bay was one surprise. Finding a sword in her hand was another, but it felt so right she just accepted it. The biggest surprise was finding herself facing a man wielding another sword, and recognizing both despite knowing they had never been introduced. A moment's study, however, showed her she was not facing the man who's face was staring at her in surprise.

"You are not Takashi," she whispered, frowning in confusion, "but you look like him. Who are you?"

His eyes narrowed as he overcame his shock, and his voice was rock-steady and nearly emotionless, "Finally, someone who will admit that. Who are _you_?"

"Yagami Hayate," she answered, "Mistress of the Night Sky..." she blinked, as something else floated into her mind, "... Wielder of the Sword of Light."

"Shimazu Sara is the only wielder the Sword of Light will accept," Akira replied.

"It has accepted me," Hayate replied.

"But _I_ have not."

She smiled sadly, as more information flowed through her mind, details and subtleties of what had happened to her. "I'm afraid you have no authority over the Sword of Light, whoever you are. It has accepted me… and it is telling me the most amazing things right now."

"You cannot match me, girl. You're the one these Bureau puppets have been asking about, aren't you? I've defeated the entirety of your fellows, you cannot stand against me. No single mage can."

Hayate pulled her attention away from the torrent of information from the Sword, looking at him curiously. "But you cannot access the full range of Takashi's spells," she said, "you are just a caretaker."

"And you have no idea what you're..."

Hayate cut him off, shifting the sword to point over his shoulder, "Celestial Bind." A single ribbon of white leapt from the blade, viper quick, to writhe about a man in an Admiral's uniform standing up behind Akira. His appearance triggered more information, and her gaze became a furious glare. But she had to deal with Akira before she could handle that matter, however much she wished otherwise.

For his part, Akira was considering her carefully, and she could feel the beginnings of a magical probe. She debated for a moment, then allowed him to scan her magic, and he nodded once, acknowledgement both that she had allowed the scan, and that she was using Deva-type magic. He moved back slightly, clearing the line between Hayate and Kriegsen, and brought the Hellblade around to guard position. Seeing that, the way he held the blade, and feeling the flow of energy from the Hellblade, Hayate frowned.

"Reinforce, make sure Admiral Kriegsen remains where he is, please," she said, releasing the staff.

It dropped half an inch, into the waiting hand of Reinforce, once more the towering statuesque woman she was based on. The hologram flickered into existence, achieving a level of solid reality Hayate had been previously unable to reproduce. Now, with her own source of power, Reinforce gripped herself tightly, and bowed to Hayate, "Yes, Mistress." Turning to Kriegsen, she stepped back and to one side, clearing the area around her mistress, and held the staff towards the admiral. "Ragnarok Breaker," she intoned, and with a shrill tone the triangular sigil of the Tome of the Night Sky appeared, fronted by three glowing spheres of light. "Please do not move, Admiral Kriegsen. Mistress Hayate will deal with you momentarily."

Nanoha, gaze jumping between Reinforce, Hayate, Akira and Kriegsen, finally managed to ask, "Hayate, what's going on? What happened to Reinforce? To you?" She paused, and her voice became even more quizzical, "Why are you _blonde_ again?"

Hayate looked over, and smiled at Nanoha, then at her knights. "Hello, everyone, I'm back. I'm sorry I took so long, but it was more complicated than I expected." She frowned, looking back to Akira, "It's getting more complicated, as well, and you, hologram, have not yet answered my question. Who are you?"

Akira drew himself up to his full height and saluted her, right fist covering his heart, "Akira, Breaker of Ships, the Great Traitor."

"A solid-state hologram, like Reinforce," Hayate said, causing him to blink. "You look like Takashi, you wield his sword, but Takashi would never have made you, would he? He did not like holograms, thought they were too close to slavery, too easy to confuse with living beings." She smiled, glancing at her Knights, "I'd agree, from personal experience, in general. So where did you come from?"

"I am bound to fulfill Shimazu Takashi's final wish."

"Final wish? He is not dead."

Akira shook his head, "He cannot return from where he has gone. Aoi sent him there, only she can bring him back. The Hellblade created to me in response to his final order, to achieve his final goal – justice for Aoi."

"Attacking the Bureau is his idea of justice?"

"Justice is no longer possible, only vengeance," Akira snarled. "The Bureau already acquitted the bastard."

"The Bureau will listen to me on this," Hayate told him, looking back at Kriegsen, who was listening intently while staring at Reinforce.

Akira snorted derisively, "And what would you know about it, girl?"

She cocked her head at him, then smiled, "Sara did more than safeguard Takashi. She arranged for everything she knew to be passed on to another. She stored everything she knew on her magic, everything she knew about Takashi, and everything she knew about that last mission, into the Hellblade, under the guardianship of two programs, Hypatia and Beaudicea. Will you give me a moment to show you?"

"I will have my vengeance," Akira repeated, "but I will give you a moment."

Hayate nodded, and walked towards Kriegsen, her face hardening into a glare. "You are an evil man, Admiral Kriegsen, and you made a serious mistake in underestimating Shimazu Sara."

"Sara Nelson," Kriegsen replied, gaze scanning over the assembled powers, "her marriage to him was a crime, it should never have happened."

Hayate ignored his comment, "She loved research, loved looking things up. She was almost as skilled at it as Yuuno is. She studied Lost Logia intensively, once she was assigned aboard the _Deva_. Bureau records are quite extensive on the subject, of course, and the most thorough records concern those Logia held in the Secure Archives. So, when that Class One activated at Alin Sydra, she recognized it, as one of the more predictable but dangerous Class One Lost Logias held in Secure Archives, too powerful to be left loose, too dangerous to be destroyed."

Kriegsen was staring only at her now, angry but confident, a glare to match Hayate's as she continued, "Admiral Wilhelm Kriegsen, as a Special Officer of the Time Space Administration Bureau, I hereby place you under arrest, for removing a Class One Lost Logia from Secure Archives without authorization, for releasing said Lost Logia without safeguards, for activating said Lost Logia in the presence of civilians, for endangering civilians through willful negligence, for hazarding your command, and personnel _under _your command, through willful negligence, as accomplice before the fact in the destruction of Bureau ships and the deaths of Bureau personnel, and for the pre-meditated murder of Bureau Mage Captain Shimazu Sara. Drop your weapon, release your magic, and you will be permitted to plead in your own defense."

A horrified look suffused Kriegsen's face as she listed the crimes. As she finished, however, he shook his head and smiled. "Oh, very good, Takashi. The illusion is incredibly lifelike. What did you do, destroy her when you woke and..."

"I am no illusion, Admiral," Hayate told him, "I have spent the last few days trapped within the Hellblade, in a pocket dimension Shimazu Sara created to be her husband's private retreat. Where she bound him, in the moment before her death, to safeguard the greatest discovery she ever made."

"A mage-scan will prove that," Kriegsen said, "but I doubt Takashi will wait that long before he starts killing again. Admiral Hallaoun, you have your entire team here and ready, I suggest you act. I will keep this hologram busy, you deal with Akira."

"Actually," Hayate smiled, glancing back over her shoulder to where Reinforce still held the Ragnarok Breaker, "A mage-scan will report that I am _not_ Yagami Hayate. Such scan's verify a mage's linker-core, after all, and the one registered to me is no longer mine." She gestured to Reinforce, "she has it, now, as the Sword of Light holds Sara's original linker-core, and the Hellblade holds Takashi's."

A chorus of pained sounds rolled through the bay. Almost all of them had experienced what it was like to have a linker-core pulled out, and reacted to Hayate's statement by flinching. "H... Hayate-chan? But... how can you still..."

Hayate shrugged, "Hypatia and Beaudicea gave me a new linker-core, Fate-chan, a different one, that allows me to use Deva-type magic. I'm afraid mage-scan will no longer register me as Yagami Hayate."

"How convenient," Kriegsen replied, shaking his head, "Admiral Hallaoun, you've only ever seen two people use Sara's magic, Akira and myself. Akira's the murderer here, the criminal, and you need to deal with him. Stop falling for his gambit."

"Misdirection is not Akira's style," Chrono commented, "but I can't discount the possibility that he has been deceiving us this entire time. Signum, verify whether or not this is Hayate, please."

Signum nodded, and began walking towards Hayate. "Forgive me, Hayate, but we have to be sure."

"Ask me a question, Signum," Hayate told her. "If I can answer it, I am who I claim to be. If not, arrest me for impersonating and officer, I won't resist."

Signum contemplated for a few moments, crossing her arms while studying the girl before her and thinking. "Ti'arol, the Star Serpent case. What was the last order you gave us, and how did we follow it?"

Hayate thought back for a moment, and could not help giggling. "I told you to go after Vari. He had triggered the Lost Logia, and I planned to deal with it, seal it, while the four of you captured him. So the four of you made a simultaneous attack on the Lost Logia, destroying it, _then_ went after Vari." Hayate schooled her expression to be very serious, and shook an admonishing finger at the taller woman, "That was when I learned to be very specific with you, Signum. You keep trying to protect me from things I don't need to be protected from."

"We exist to safeguard the Mistress of the Night Sky," Signum said in a tight voice, then bowed deeply, "A thousand apologies for doubting you, Mistress."

Hayate walked over to her and put a hand on her Sword Knight's shoulder, pushing her upright, "Don't cry, Signum, you'll ruin your stoic image."

Signum cracked a smile, and pulled Hayate into a hug, which she returned. "Welcome home, Mistress."

"I'm afraid, Admiral Kriegsen, that you _are_ under arrest," Chrono said, "you will be held for trial..."

"I will not be held for this," Kriegsen snarled.

Things happened very quickly after that. He broke the Celestial Bind by brute force, a wave of magic that flashed through the chamber. Hayate spun free of Signum and shouted, "Uriel's Shield!" The small white shield appeared before her outstretched hand, and Kriegsen's follow-up attack slammed into a wall of nothing, creating a shimmering yellow-white distortion across the width of the bay.

Akira's response was more aggressive than hers, anticipation filling his voice, "Brimstone Spear." The bolt of lava flew past Hayate's shield without slowing, and a thunderous explosion rocked the bay as it struck the far side.

The next spell came from Kriegsen himself, though he spoke not a word. Hayate felt the power shifting, felt him reaching through space for something, and a moment later all of Headquarters quivered, shaking like a skyscraper in an earthquake. The overhead lights flickered, and went out, followed almost immediately by the red emergency lights snapping on, and a wailing siren sounding. When the smoke and dust cleared, Kriegsen was nowhere to be seen. A gaping hole in the wall where he had been standing led through a service tunnel to the next bay over.

"He's aboard the ship," Chrono said, ignoring the hole in the wall and running for the docking tube. He was halfway down it, with the rest on his heels, when the tube shuddered, and tore free of the _Novus Deva_ as it backed out of its slip. For a moment, gale force winds ripped at them as the atmosphere in the bay and tube rushed into the vacuum of space, then Zafira and Arf slammed shields across the end of the tunnel, sealing it.

"He's not getting away," Akira snarled, watching the ship pull out of its slip.

Hayate grabbed his arm before he could vanish, "No, Akira, stop." When she had his attention, she continued, "You can't attack that ship, Akira. The crew is innocent, they have no idea what is truly happening."

"I don't care."

"_I _care," Hayate countered, "and I will not let you do that again. You may have defeated my friends, but you will not be able to defeat all of us together. Please, Akira. I know what he did, I can prove it, as well. There is a chamber, probably here in Headquarters, in the Secure Archives, where he worked on this. I know, I've seen it, warded by Deva-type magic. Since you and I did not make it, that means _he did_. We can prove it, Akira, we can get justice for Sara and Takashi. Please, don't kill anyone else. Don't spill more blood in her name."

He was glaring at her, but still listening, "How can I trust you? You're _Bureau_."

"I am the Mistress of the Night Sky," Hayate replied, "I called upon the Book of Darkness and let it loose on the world in all its destructive insanity." A slight lie, but close enough to the truth. She was the Book's Mistress, so she was responsible for it's waking, in one interpretation. "The Bureau still saw through to the truth and treated me and mine with fairness and justice. Please, give us a chance, to finish this, the way Sara would have wanted it finished."

He shook his head roughly, "He's getting away, I don't have time for this."

"He will not escape," Chrono said, "We're deep within Bureau Headquarters, we can teleport aboard in a few minutes, far more quickly than he can get out of range. Mother is setting up the teleport now."

"Please," Hayate said, taking his hand in both of hers, "You have accomplished your mission, Akira. Aoi and Takashi will have their justice. Please, rest, let us finish it."

He looked obstinate for a moment, then turned from her to the ship. "You swear to me that he will be destroyed?"

Hayate nodded, "I swear it. He may not die, but he will be destroyed, he will have to live with the shame and terror of his defeat. Please, Akira."

"What about Takashi?" Akira lifted the Hellblade, staring into its depths, "my Lord is bound within here, unable to escape, unable even to realize he is bound."

Hayate sighed, shaking her head, "I do not know. Sara left something about how she saved him, but not how to reverse it. The gems about Reinforce seem to be related to it, somehow, but... I will have to study it, study him, but that will take time."

Akira looked back at her, and for a change, there was no hatred or anger in his gaze, just contemplation. "Aoi chose well, I guess. I will give you one month to achieve the justice you have promised me. After that, I will once again seek my vengeance myself." So saying, he flowed into the Hellblade vanishing in a moment into nothingness, leaving the blade floating.

Hayate reached out and took the blade, cradling it for a moment, contemplating the tragedies piled upon that sword. "Zafira, could you please hold onto this for me?"

He stepped forward and, somewhat gingerly, took the heavy blade from her. Studying it closely, he shook his head. "Hard to believe we were battling a hologram all this time."

"Akira was not just a hologram, Zafira," Hayate reassured him, "he had access to Takashi's magic, and the Hellblade served Akira as well as it served Takashi. He was always real, always dangerous. He just was not what anyone thought he was."

Shamal, also studying the weapon in Zafira's hands, asked, "Should it still be called 'Hellblade'? You renamed Reinforce, when she was freed of the security protocols."

"No, it is the Hellblade. Sara changed it, at the last, to better protect Takashi. It is not named for what it can do, but for what it and its master have survived. Guard it well, Zafira, we will need it to save Takashi, if we can."

Chrono interrupted, "We have a problem. Something is blocking the teleport to _Novus Deva_. Mother will teleport us to the _Asura_, and we'll pursue that way."

"You go ahead, Chrono-kun," Hayate told him, "we'll need another ship to bring the _Novus Deva_ back to Headquarters. Zafira, please go with him, I cannot bring the Hellblade with me, and do not want to tempt Akira to break his promise. The rest of us will pursue him from here." Everyone looked at her like she had gone crazy, and her smile became humorous. "I can carry all of you within the Sword of Light, and utilize one of Sara's spells to pursue him."

"Agreed," Chrono said, "It'll take an hour or so to get the _Asura_ moving."

They moved back into the bay, sealing the doors behind them, to free up Chrono and Arf from the shield. While Chrono and Zafira teleported to the _Asura_, Hayate took a moment to be sure she understood the spell she was about to cast. Then, smiling to her gathered friends, she pulled on the Sword of Light for the first time, "Arc of Angels." A cone of light leapt from the tip of the sword to cover the others, then vanished, taking them with it. _Everyone alright,_ she asked mentally?

_All present and accounted for,_ Signum answered her.

_It's a little weird in here, Hayate-chan,_ Nanoha said, _everything's white and..._ she trailed off uncertainly.

_... It's a worse mess than Yuuno-kun's office,_ Fate finished,_ messes of books everywhere._

_Fate-chan!_ Nanoha sounded quite insulted on Yuuno's behalf.

_Sara created that space to be her true journal,_ Hayate told them, _Please don't read anything, I'm not sure what is actually in there._ She turned to the only other person still in the bay, and pulled her into a hug. "It's good to see you again, Reinforce."

The woman, who still towered over her, returned Hayate's embrace, "I am still your device, Mistress, crafted by your hand. But, the image you programmed no longer seems to fit, so..."

"That's fine, Reinforce. I like this one better, anyhow." Hayate stepped back and held out her free hand. A moment later, she felt the staff settle into it.

"Good hunting, Mistress. I will be here when you need me." Reinforce vanished, and the full weight of the staff settled in Hayate's hand. She sighed, the image was bittersweet, and having it vanish again reminded her of the pain of losing the original Reinforce. But she had work to do, so she slung the staff over her back, and turned to the cargo bay doors. Her next spell required more power than she had used since leaving the dragon, and she was curious as to how it would manifest outside the Hellblade's pocket dimension.

The white aura of power grew around her, flowing liquidly around her. "Lightwing," she ordered, and the aura snapped into solidity about her, covering where her armor did not in white, and forming another pair of wings on her back, angular and smooth as glass. Walking over to the boarding tube doors, she triggered the emergency open, then rode the blast of air down the tube and into space.

A moment to orient herself, another to call on the Sword of Light to track her target, and she stretched her wings and flew.

------------------------------

"We will be free of Headquarters' interference zone and supra-light capable in ten minutes, Admiral."

From his position in the captain's chair, Admiral Kriegsen leaned forward and acknowledged the report, "Thank you, Lieutenant. Any sign of Akira?"

"No sir. We're still receiving that false hail from Headquarters, and it looks like a group of warships are moving to follow us, but no sign of Akira himself."

Kriegsen nodded slowly, then once more abruptly. "All right then. I have to take care of securing the last of our cargo. Follow the course I've programmed, don't stop for any reason, and let me know when we reach the end point. I'll be in my office if you need me." He strode off the bridge confidently, every inch of his bearing projecting the certainty and authority of a Second Admiral of the Time Space Administration Bureau.

Once he was alone in the corridor, however, his shoulders slumped. _Running away,_ he criticized himself harshly, _running again, from a barbaric child with more power than he has any right to, and no idea of his place in the world._ A moment's self-pity was all he allowed himself, however. _Everything is here, everything I need, all the evidence to prove it. Two days to finish setting it up, and this will all be over._ He touched the left chest of his uniform, feeling the small photograph carried in the inside pocket. _Soon, Sara, it will all be over. You will be avenged._

He stopped outside the door to his ship-board office, reaching for the mage-triggers on the far side that would disable the array of wards.

"Admiral Wilhelm Kreigsen. As a Special Officer of the Time Space Administration Bureau, I hereby place you under arrest."

The voice that interrupted him was sweet and clear, but it's tone was cold and hard. Looking to his right, back the way he had come from, he saw the girl from the docking bay standing in the hall of his ship, Sara's sword held before him, only the tip and tsuba visible it was so perfectly aligned with his eyes. He could not help thinking how much like Sara she appeared, eyes blued by the Sword's power, hair turned blonde the same way, confident determination in every line of her body and face.

------------------------------

Getting aboard the _Novus Deva_ had been simplicity itself. Finding Kriegsen had been more difficult. The ship was not laid out according to standard Bureau designs, and they could not afford to let the crew know they were aboard until either the Admiral or the ship was secured. But Hayate felt the distortion caused by the interactions of Deva and Mid type magics, and homed in on that. She was not disappointed.

After she spoke, he turned to face her, a look of terrible sadness on his face that quickly turned to resolution. "I don't know how you got here without being detected, girl, but I will not surrender now. I have almost destroyed that monster, and I will not allow his illusions to stop me now."

"I am not an illusion," Hayate told him, "but your opinion on that is immaterial. If you resist, I may be forced to kill you. Surrender, and you will have the opportunity to plead your case."

"No," he shook his head, "not this late in the mission, this close to success. Breaker of Dreams." The yellow aura flared into being around him, three streamers of it spiraling together to form a drill-like bolt that flew at Hayate with lightning speed.

"Uriel's Shield," Hayate replied calmly, and again the palm-sized white shield appeared. Kriegsen's attack slammed into it, and she sighed as alarms began sounding. _He's chosen to do this the hard way,_ she told the others.

_Arf and I have the engine room,_ Fate replied, _no trouble from the crew. The ship's not going anywhere._

_I'll be on the bridge in a moment,_ Nanoha said, _got a little lost in a side corridor, gomen._

_Barrier going up now,_ Reinforce told her, _he's all yours, Mistress._

Hayate had to be very careful to give no outward sign. Kriegsen was building another, more complicated, attack spell, but he was still watching her closely. Deciding against letting him beat at her shield unopposed, she called out, "Michael's Sword of Flame!" Twin spirals of flame leapt from the Sword of Light's tsuba, rapidly wreathing the katana in white/red heat, and she leapt to the attack, Uriel's Shield holding its place before her.

Kriegsen blocked her with what she at first thought was his bare arm. But as the flame of her sword seared away his uniform's sleeve, it revealed a silver metal gauntlet. "Panzerfaust, my device," he growled, then added, "Blowback."

The reflection of her own spell was a surprise, and Hayate rode the blast to slide back down the corridor, rather than let it injure her. _At least I forced him to abort his spell,_ she thought, then turned her attention to the next exchange.

The corridor was far from an ideal battleground, for either of them. They could not risk their more powerful spells, as even their lesser magics were damaging the ship around them. Hayate knew for a fact that Morningstar's Wrath would break the ship in two, even if it only hit Kriegsen and did not deflect of whatever counter he used. So they dueled in the confines of the corridor outside his office with lesser spells, and with sword and gauntlet. It was a style of combat that Hayate had little experience with, and she had dearly wanted to leave it to Signum, Vita or Fate, who all reveled in close combat. But Kriegsen's use of Deva-type magic required Hayate to counter it, and it would disrupt any other magic in the area, and they had to take Kriegsen alive, which her Knights might not be able to do. In her favor, it had been decades since Kriegsen engaged in true combat, and he was far rustier than she was.

A part of her mind was saddened that, whatever else happened today, this marked the first occasion when two Deva mages fought one another in true battle. Sara and Takashi had never fought one another outside of training, never engaged in the sort of free-form win-or-die battle Kriegsen and Hayate now engaged in. It marred the beauty of this new discovery Hayate had been shown, and that depressed her. But she refused to allow that sadness to turn her away, because however sad the use of the magic, justice for Sara and Takashi, for all those lost in this terrible charade, was more important.

Their spells for the most part cancelled one another out, limited as they were to lower level, weaker magics. However, as the battle careened back and forth through the corridor, Hayate realized that her initial estimation had been correct. For all the knowledge Hypatia, Beaudicea and the Sword of Light had given her, knowledge was not experience. Kriegsen was simply more familiar with Deva-type magic, how to use it efficiently, and how to predict side effects and interactions. Slowly, but surely, he was pushing her back. Eventually, they found themselves facing off, white and yellow auras flickering and swirling madly, sword to gauntlet.

"You can't beat me, hologram," He growled, "I'll drive you off and finish what I started."

Hayate shook her head, fighting against both his greater physical strength and the tiredness of an extended fight, and decided that she had tried long enough to end this simply. "Except, I have something you do not, Admiral."

"What would that be?"

Hayate shoved him back, hard, generating a small blast of pure power between them to amplify the separation. When he staggered and almost fell, she told him, "Friends." Mentally, she ordered, _Now Shamal!_

He was snarling something, hand raised with open palm towards her, when he suddenly jerked like a puppet on a string, a pale white arm suddenly lunging out of his chest, an amorphous yellow mass of light held in the clutching hand. Kriegsen gasped, choking in shock and pain, but could not move while his linker core was held fast in Shamal's grip. A moment later, lines of green energy flowed out of Shamal's hand and began wrapping around the linker core, hiding its yellow light and taming its gyrations.

Hayate gestured with the Sword of Light, "Celestial Bind," and wrapped Panzerfaust in magical bindings. That done, she walked over and carefully removed the gauntlet from Kreigsen's arm, ignoring both his stare and his feeble attempts to resist. Once she had the device removed, she looked into his eyes. "You are an evil, evil man," she told him again, then turned and walked back down the hall to the door he had been about to open. _Signum, Vita, Shamal. Secure the prisoner in the ship's brig, please._

_Yes, Mistress,_ Signum answered somberly.

Hayate listened with part of her attention as Kriegsen was bound by spells and by metal. Vita took his device from her without a word, while she studied the wards on the far side of the door. She had to be careful, if she was to avoid destroying Kriegsen's gathered evidence.

------------------------------

Sheo Darren – Glad you're still enjoying this, though I've got to warn you, it's almost over. As far as making the magic and what-not realistic, the biggest thing is consistency (which I actually have trouble with, usually – poor note-keeping), if it's done the same way every time, it's more believable. The emotional imagery is something I'm not usually good with, since I've not had much experience with such things myself. I wrote chapter 07 of this & chapter 21 of Rise of the Guardians (yes, a shameless plug!) at the same time, and they've both got similar scenes, so they sort of fed off each other in my head. As for my vocabulary, it's a combination of reading a lot (couple novels a week, if it's a slow week for reading), playing a lot of RPGs (crazy uses for the same old terms), and being an English major (need a lot of big words to impress a college English prof). I've picked up a massive vocabulary from those, I just forget to use it sometimes. Thanks for still reading, and for the repeated reviews!

Panzerfan – Thanks for reviewing, hope the above was as entertaining as prior chapters. Hopefully what Akira said in the previous chapter (about the power reserve) and what Hayate related above explains why Akira was so much trouble. In all honesty, I didn't settle on what, exactly, Akira was until this chapter, or on where Hayate has been throughout, or on what precisely happened when Sara died. Regarding Nanoha and Fate, I _intended_ this story to be about Nanoha, when I started, with a little bit from Fate and Hayate. As it turned out, this was my first experience with one of my own stories getting away from me. The sad part is, this is also the first time I had a story fully outlined before sitting down to write more than the prologue.


	10. 09 Renewal

**On The Path of Vengeance**

By Daishi Prime

Epilogue – Renewal

_Two Years Later, Spring_

The Midori-ya Cafe was closed for the day, but it was still a mad-house. People rushed in and out, to and fro, in a manic display of orchestrated chaos. Pausing to one side to catch her breath, Hayate shook her head in amazement. Somewhere between twenty and thirty people had been rushing about the shop since early morning, striving to make sure everything was ready for that afternoon and evening, but no one had been injured.

Chairs, tables, china, silverware, glasses, all of them were flying about the place, under the watchful gaze of Lindy Hallaoun. Some were even moving with no one touching them, a blatant violation of Bureau regulations regarding the use of magic in a non-mage civilization. Of the handful of Bureau officers on site, no one really cared – they were too busy, too happy, and most of them were the ones breaking the rules, anyhow.

"Gah, I'm exhausted," Vita collapsed into a chair next to Hayate, draping herself over the back dramatically and dropping one arm over her eyes. "Wake me when food gets here."

Hayate grinned at her Knight, and nudged her gently, "Come on, Vita-chan, it's not that bad. And you've known this day was coming for years, haven't you? You should be happy, enjoying the thrill!"

Vita pushed herself upright, "Tche, would've been here sooner if ferret-boy had gotten his act together."

"Vita!" Shamal glared down at her compatriot as she passed, a stack of china balanced in her hands. "Don't say things like that today!"

"She's right," Hayate said, giving Vita a one-armed hug as she sulked, "Today's their day, so be nice. Please?"

"Hai, hai," Vita grumbled, "It's not like either of them is here."

"Yuuno's already at the chapel, you're right." He and Chrono were making sure everything there was ready. It had been ready since the night before, but Yuuno had been a twitching mess since he woke up this morning, and it had been quietly agreed by those orchestrating this carnival that he needed to be someplace quiet. "Nanoha is in back, though, talking to her mother and sister. Please, Vita?"

"I already said I'd behave," Vita grumbled.

Hayate was about to respond, when she felt a shiver of magic, a slight probe that was more acknowledgement than examination. Raising her head, she looked about confusedly, but the magic had borne no traces of her many friends here. Tracing it took her a few moments, and then she nodded. "Vita, please help Lindy-san. I need to go check on something else. Please tell everyone to go ahead without me, I will meet you all at the chapel."

Vita was immediately clinging to her, "_Please_ take me with you! This place is insane! I'm too short, someone's going to run me over, I know it!"

"No one is going to run you over," Hayate reassured her with a grin, disengaging Vita's grip on her shirt, "they're too afraid of having you yell at them again. Please, Vita, I won't be long, and I won't be in any danger. Umm, but please don't tell Signum until later?"

"Hah! You are going to do something dangerous!"

"No, not dangerous," Hayate shook her head, "just something necessary."

She slipped into the back of the shop, then up the stairs to the roof. Once there, she looked around to be sure no one was watching, then held her hands out to each side. "Reinforce, Sword of Light, awaken please." The staff and sword which had become her signature appeared, followed a moment later by her white and black armor. The Sword of Light remained its immutable self, but Reinforce still looked strangely odd to Hayate, without her halo of gemstones.

"Going somewhere?"

Hayate flinched, then turned slowly, "Ah, gomen, Signum, I didn't want to worry you." The purple-haired woman leaning against the doorframe just quirked an eyebrow. Hayate sighed, slinging the Sword of Light's scabbard over her shoulder, "Someone just arrived on-world. I wanted to go talk to him."

"Who?"

"A friend."

Signum's look flowed easily from gravely curious to repressively annoyed, "What friend? I'd like to meet him."

"No, Signum," Hayate shook her head, "Momoko-san and Lindy-san need all the help they can get to prepare for tonight. Stay here. I'll be back before the wedding begins, I wouldn't miss that. But I need to talk to him before he disappears. I couldn't track him down last time, I don't want to risk him getting away again."

Understanding washed over Signum's features. "He's dangerous Hayate-san," Signum then shook her head and sighed, "but probably not to you. Go ahead. I'll let everyone know."

Hayate smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Signum. I'll be back shortly."

------------------------------

Hayate came out of the teleport twenty meters from the monument. It stood in the center of a small hill, overlooking the ancient plinths of Stonehenge and newly re-grown fields around the ancient site. Its base was a cube of granite, a meter and a half on a side, planed smooth, each face carved with the likeness and names of two ships. On top of the base stood a life-size statue in bronze of Shimazu Sara, the Sword of Light in her hands, held at mid-guard, a determined look on her face as she stared out over the remains of one of her favorite magical sites.

Standing in front of the monument, staring up into Sara's face beneath a grey English sky, Shimazu Takashi showed no emotions to the world. His hair was longer now than it had been after she freed him, almost long enough to pull back in a tail, and somewhat wild despite an apparent attempt at keeping it under control. All she could see of him from the side was hidden under a long brown duster, the Hellblade slung at an angle across his back.

"I had it made based on the first image I ever saw of her," Hayate offered, moving slowly to stand beside him, joining him in looking up at the statue. "In the Hellblade's pocket dimension, a stone slab carved with a bas relief of her. There are two more, at Angkor and T'ai Shan."

"I know," he said softly, "I'll visit the others eventually, but England was her homeland."

Hayate nodded, and for a few minutes the two of them simply stood together, observing the statue, remembering the past. "Are you ready to talk about it?"

"No. I don't think I ever will be."

"In time, hopefully," Hayate let the subject drop, unwilling to push when he was still so depressed. "It's good to see you have your form under control again."

He snorted, though she could not tell if the sound was derisive or amused, "yeah, I only turn into a ravening engine of destruction when I'm unconscious, now, instead of every time I try to use magic."

"You were never that bad. The dragon form Sara's binding left you with could be quite useful, if you ever gain full control of it. Can you use your magic normally again? I felt your probe, but..."

"It's back, all of it. I don't have to rely on the Hellblade alone anymore. Aoi's greatest discovery is mine once again."

"Iie," Hayate shook her head, "she never considered magic to be her greatest discovery. That was always you, Takashi-san. I don't think you ever understood just how much you fascinated her. Everything she did at the end, was to protect and preserve you."

He sighed mournfully, finally looking away from the statue to stare at his feet. "I know. I just can't help thinking it wasn't worth the price."

"It never is," Hayate replied, remembering the original Reinforce, and her own parents, "but we cannot honor their memories by surrendering. If we lay down and die, we render their sacrifices worthless, ne?"

He looked up at her, and changed the subject again by asking the question she had expected to be first. "What happened to Wilhelm?"

"How much do you remember from before you left?"

"He was on trial, a conviction was expected. Whether it happened or not, I don't know. My people's home-world is a little short of news services."

The flash of humor, small and morbid though it may have been, was a good sign, and Hayate welcomed it as such. "Kriegsen was convicted on all charges. Out of consideration for his family, he was permitted to take his own life rather than suffer the indignity of a lifetime imprisonment. He... proved unable to do so, and is currently incarcerated near Alin Sydra, tasked with cleaning up the physical damage he caused. The guards report he is thoroughly broken in spirit. Destroyed, as I promised Akira."

For a few moments, he hung his head, eyes closed as he contemplated. Hayate was curious about what his reaction would be, considering what Sara had remembered of her husband in her journals, and how thoroughly Kreigsen had betrayed them. "I suppose I should be happy to hear that," he said after a moment. "I should hate him, shouldn't I?"

"I am surprised you don't, Takashi-san. You have all the reason in the world."

"I don't. All I can feel is this sick, sad emptiness. He destroyed both his own world and mine, for petty jealousy."

"Jealousy is never petty," Hayate countered, "it is always destructively dangerous. Jealousy summons and activates more Lost Logia than any other emotion, because it incorporates and warps so many other emotions. Admiral Lindy Hallaoun told me that, shortly after I joined the Bureau, and I have seen it demonstrated too often to doubt it."

"Still. There is nothing left, not even hatred for someone I should justifiably despise for the rest of my life." His voice dropped to a whisper, so soft she was not sure he intended to speak at all, "Nothing left but the loneliness."

Not caring for the direction this conversation was heading in, Hayate cast about quickly for a way to change it, and found something better. "Would you mind making a slight detour with me?" Reaching across the world, she asked, _Nanoha-chan, would you object if I brought a last-minute guest?_

Nanoha's response was distracted but immediate, _Of course you can, Hayate-chan. Who is it?_

For a moment, Hayate almost decided to side-step the issue, as she had with Signum. But Nanoha did not deserve to have her wedding disrupted, so a warning was required. _It's Shimazu Takashi. He came here to visit Sara's memorials, and I wanted to show him something positive, instead of a reminder of his loss._

_Of course he can come!_ Hayate was glad when Nanoha did not even hesitate. _Is he still a dragon, though? I don't think he'll fit in the chapel, and if we break the building…_

Hayate smiled at her friend's see-sawing emotions. She had been on a roller-coaster ride for days, deliriously happy one minute, terrified the next. She was in better shape than Yuuno, but neither of them was even close to their usually collected selves. _He's fine. We'll stay in the back so we don't distract anyone._

She turned her attention back to Takashi, and found him staring at her. At her questioning look, he told her, "I didn't want to interrupt your discussion."

Hayate grimaced, surprised he had noticed, "Gomen. I was making sure that my friends would not be offended if I brought you."

"Brought me where?"

"You'll see. Will you come?"

He looked back up at the statue of his wife, then nodded, slowly. "Not like I've got a schedule to keep. Sure, I'll come."

------------------------------

They arrived shortly before the ceremony began, and Hayate breathed a sigh of relief. However important her reason, Nanoha would have been upset if she had missed this. Letting Signum know she was there, she pushed Takashi into a seat and sat to block his path to the aisle and escape. He gave her an amused look, but did not say anything about that.

"Scrya Yuuno," he said after a moment, looking over Yuuno. "He looks about as bad as I felt when..." He trailed off, face hardening into an emotionless mask again.

"Poor Yuuno's been a nervous wreck ever since he asked Nanoha to marry him," Hayate told him, grinning at the memory. "She hasn't been much better, but at least she's been cheerful about half the time. It would be hilarious, if they weren't driving the rest of us to distraction. It's just funny, instead, something we can tease them about later."

"I didn't have time to be nervous," Takashi related, smiling fondly as he remembered. "I was too busy organizing the whole thing. Sara never could get her nose out of a book long enough to make any plans, so everyone just brought their questions to me."

"Why doesn't that surprise me? Yuuno didn't have that escape, though." As they waited for Nanoha's entrance, Hayate found herself giving a brief history of the couple's courtship, from how they met to their discussions following the Akira incident when the two finally actually talked about how they felt, through Yuuno's stammered proposal. From there, she moved to the odd almost-relationship that had grown between Fate and Chrono, a relationship both of them vehemently denied, but neither ever quite gave up.

"Why aren't you up there with Testarossa," Takashi asked at one point.

Looking up to where Nanoha had just taken her place, Hayate smiled. "Nanoha was originally going to ask all of us. Fate, Arisa, Suzuka, her sister Miyuki, her mother Momoko, my Wolkenritter and I… the list goes on. Look at that dais. We would've been smashed in like sardines. Fortunately, her mother warned us, and we talked her into just Fate, Arisa and Suzuka." Hayate giggled, "Poor Nanoha, she was terrified for a while there that _none_ of us wanted to stand by her, because we kept suggesting she ask the others. This is the best way to handle it, though. I'd rather be watching it all than be caught up in it, anyhow. That's Nanoha's brother, Kyohya, and one of Yuuno's friends from the Infinity Library, behind Chrono."

When the ceremony began, she only listened with half an ear. The rest of her attention was on telepathically continuing her stories for Takashi, telling him anything and everything she could think of regarding her friends. Funny and serious, missions and daily life, she painted for him a picture of the world she lived in, in all its fabulous complexity, trying to draw him into it and make it real for him, a part of him. Takashi offered very little, but he listened to all of it, and she even saw a miniscule smile on occasion, and took hope from those small signs.

As the crowd filed out, headed for the Midori-ya Cafe and the reception, Hayate pulled Takashi to one side. For a while, they watched the happy crowd congratulating the newlyweds, standing as mutual mute witnesses to the obvious joy of all involved. "You know why I asked you here," Hayate said, deliberately making it a statement, rather than a question.

"To show me that life goes on, ne?"

She shook her head. "Only in part. Look around, Takashi. How many mages do you see here?"

He frowned, and spent a moment counting. "Twenty-two, and six familiars. What of it? A Bureau officer's wedding is always well attended by mages. There were thirty at mine, though no familiars that I remember."

Hayate smiled, picking out the major members of her family and friends. "I'm thinking of ten of the mages, and four of the familiars. The rest are friends Nanoha and Yuuno made at Headquarters. But not that long ago by your standards, maybe nine years, Nanoha and Fate were enemies, fighting to gain possession of a cluster of Lost Logia: Nanoha sought to seal them, Fate sought to give them to her mother to use. Chrono and Lindy-san almost arrested both of them, and did arrest Fate, eventually. Less than a year later, my Wolkenritter fought them, to complete the Tome of the Night Sky. When they did, and my powers woke, I set the Tome to destroy them before I realized what had happened. Yet look at us now. We had to convince Nanhoa _not_ to include all of us in her wedding party. At Headquarters, the ten of us are called 'Asura's Pride', a reference to our skills, our power, and our loyalty to one another. Admiral Graham once compared us to a pride of lions, and the name stuck.

"What I wanted you to see, Takashi, is that no one will blame you for Kriegsen's actions, or Akira's," she paused, then added, "or for Sara's." Takashi froze again, then turned to glare at her. "What she did was not wrong, it was a great and noble thing, sacrificing herself as she did. But it seems you cannot accept that _she_ saved _you_. You blame yourself for not saving her, when she was the one with the knowledge, the experience, and the power. But no one else blames you, and blaming yourself, _punishing_ yourself, as you have, is as bad as suicide would have been. Sara did not save you so you could wallow in guilt, Takashi. She saved your life so you could live it. You need to stop hiding from yourself, and from everyone else. Go do something other than mourn, meet people who don't know you, won't pity or fear you, and live a life worthy of her sacrifice."

His face remained emotionless, as he turned back to study the wedding party once more. A few minutes passed in silence, then he asked, "What of you, Lady Yagami? I noticed you did not have anyone special waiting for you. Should you not follow your own advice?"

Hayate was surprised, but as she considered his question, had to admit he was partly right. She shrugged, "I suppose I should. Mind you, there isn't a direct parallel, since I haven't spent the last two years alone on a dead world."

"It's not dead. Things live there again, however different they are from what once called that world home, and in time it will be colonized again."

"That is good to hear," Hayate said, feeling a thrill of joy. She never liked witnessing the devastation left behind by Lost Logia, and hearing that someplace that had been damaged was recovering was always wonderful news. "But in my case, I am not alone. I know what it's like to be alone, Takashi, which is part of the reason I'm arguing with you over it. I lost my parents young, and until the Tome of the Night Sky woke and gave me my Knights, I was alone. Because of that, I do have a fear of losing people, have difficulty letting myself get close to new people, and am over-protective of those I do love. That is what was used to get me to release the Tome of the Night Sky – I thought I had lost my Knights, my new family, not a year after I found them.

"But I do talk to people, Takashi, I do live my life. I live a life I think my parents would be proud of, one I know my Knights are proud of. I have people who have proven to be the best possible friends time and again. I have my Knights, who are protectors, comrades, parents and siblings all at the same time. Who do you have, Takashi? The Hellblade? Akira? Anyone?"

"Akira is gone. Once Kriegsen was put on trial, he erased himself. Left a message saying his purpose was fulfilled, and he did not want to burden me with his crimes. I still can't find any record in the Hellblade of what he did, precisely, just references. What about your hologram, Reinforce, wasn't it? I don't see her around."

"She has a capacity for independence equal to my Knights, but has so far refused to take up the responsibility. She insists she will always be my device. I offer her freedom every few months, and she keeps turning me down." Hayate held the staff in front of her, smiling at it fondly, "She's rather obstinate about it."

"Devices can be. I sometimes think the Hellblade has deliberately avoided achieving full sentience. Every so often it seems to be right on the edge of it, but then..."

"So you _are_ alone."

"Back to that... and you call your staff obstinate." He shook his head, "Yes, I'm alone, and I probably always will be. It's safer that way, for everyone."

"No, not safer," Hayate told him sadly, "just easier."

"And that's what I need right now. Easy." He shoved himself off the wall and strode with remarkable determination towards where Nanoha and Yuuno were getting ready to get in the car that would take them to the Midori-ya Cafe. The crowd parted for him without seeming to notice, flowing away from his path quickly, but smoothly.

Nanoha noticed him first, and moved slightly in front of Yuuno, an unconscious protective gesture. "Shimazu Takashi-san," she whispered, smiling hesitantly, focusing everyone's attention on him.

For a moment, he simply stood in front of the two of them, matching their surprised looks with a studying one of his own. Then he bowed, deeply, to the pair of them. When he was upright again, he held out a hand to each of them, palm up, cupping nothing. "I'm afraid that, when I arrived, I was not expecting to attend a wedding. As such, I'm my gift to the new couple will have to be somewhat simple." There was a swirl of dark energy in each hand, and when it cleared, a clear purple sphere rested there. "Take them. Keep them with you always. If you ever have need of assistance, and do not wish to rely on the Bureau, for whatever reason, provide your gem with a small amount of power, and speak my name. I will hear, and come to you as soon as I can safely arrange it. If it is a crisis, use your power to break the gem, and I will arrive as soon as magically possible. Congratulations on your union, may it be as long and fruitful as mine was not, and as happy as mine was while it lasted."

Once Yuuno and Nanoha had taken the gemstones, without waiting for their replies, he turned and marched back through the silent crowd towards Hayate. He stopped about halfway, as the crowd began to merge behind him, and looked back over his shoulder. "Have I ever apologized to you for what Akira did?"

Yuuno answered for both of them, "Ah, no, Shimazu-san, but..."

Takashi cut him off, saying thoughtfully, "I'll have to get around to that… one of these days." He turned back around, and continued his course until he stood staring at Hayate for a few moments, then, "The Bureau changed my personnel file from dead to retired. You're doing?" She nodded, and he continued, "I owe you even more, then, for not letting them put me back on active duty. There is no way I can go back there right now. As such," he held out his hand, and there was another gem cupped there, "I'll give you one as well, on one condition."

Hayate took the gem without looking, trying to discern what she was seeing in his eyes. "What condition?"

"Two, actually. First, Reinforce holds it, and has the use of it." Hayate nodded, that made sense to her, but he continued, "Second, never put yourself in a position where you have to break it." He actually grinned, a lopsided, pained expression. "You are all that is left of my Aoi in this world, the only trace of her that is not sterile and un-living. You are not her, I know that, but you are something akin to her daughter, and I would not have her child put herself at risk. If you ever need to break that gem, I will come to your aid, then ensure you are never placed at such risk again." The grin became almost vicious, "much as Aoi ensured I would come to no harm."

Hayate chuckled, "That is not what I meant about 'doing something'."

"I am not Aoi, I am not you, or your friends. I have always lived my life by a policy of one warning, followed by maximum consequences. Just don't break it. You shouldn't need to, given the arsenal that's now aimed at my back." Indeed, behind him she could see all four of her Wolkenritter watching them, devices out and ready. "For now, there are still some places I must visit, ghosts to put to rest. I'll be in touch, Mistress of the Night Sky, Wielder of the Sword of Light."

He faded out, like a bad special-effect from an old movie, a wavering and fading into translucence, and Hayate decided to let him go. She had made her point, and knew he had understood it. She could still sense his magic, so he had not gone far, and after a few moments, she found him back in England, though not where she had met him. When she came out of the locator trance, all of her friends were gathered around her, a single question on every face.

Hayate reached out and took one each of Yuuno's and Nanoha's hands. "I'm so very sorry to disrupt your wedding like that," she apologized, "but he was so close to suicide. This should have been your day, but I had to do something..."

"It's fine, Hayate-chan," Yuuno told her, squeezing her hand. "I just hadn't expected... how much he looks like Akira." Yuuno had recovered fully from the Soulbreaker, but it would take someone more than human not to harbor fear of that face, after such a traumatic experience.

"He's nicer than I expected," Nanoha said. "From your description, I thought he wouldn't say a word."

"I'm working on him," Hayate said, "now that I know where he is."

Arisa laughed and shoved Hayate's shoulder gently, "Are you interested in him, Hayate-chan? I didn't think you'd go for an older guy."

Hayate flushed slightly, but Arisa had been making jokes like that for years now, despite having more boyfriends than anyone else, so she just pushed back. "No, I'm not interested in him. But Sara gave me many gifts, all so that I could save him. I'm just making sure the job is done right. I don't want her to think I'm ungrateful, or lazy."

"No one would think that of you, Hayate-chan," Nanoha reassured her. "Now come on," her smile became blazing, "I've got a husband to show off!"

Yuuno flushed a brilliant red, but managed to avoid stammering by not saying anything. He took Nanoha's arm, and the two of them walked over to the limo arranged for the day. Smiling, feeling her family of Knights surround her, Hayate followed along, aiming for the station-wagon Shamal still insisted on driving. _I'll see you when you're ready, Takashi,_ she thought, rolling the gem he had given her between thumb and finger, _and you will talk about it one of these days. Sara saved you, and I'll make sure of it._

------------------------------

Fin

------------------------------

DreadnoughtVV – Glad you've enjoyed this, hopefully the epilogue continued to live up to expectations. The complicated nature of the 'bad guys' in both seasons of this series (especially the Nanoha A's) is one of the major reasons I love it. I've always preferred complicated villains, and complicated heroes, for the realism, and for the fact that real people (and realistic people) do the strangest things, making it easy to be unpredictable.

Sheo Darren – Now that it's done, I can honestly say thank you for sticking with it throughout. There is always a bit of a let-down when a story concludes, whether reading it or writing it, but, as the saying goes, 'all good things...'. Akira's nature as a hologram was something I never quite settled on until last chapter. He was originally supposed to be a case of split-personality, if memory serves, but the hologram idea fit much better with the Nanoha universe and style. I do like Shamal's trick, it's the sort of sneaky underhanded move no one ever looks for and I've loved it since the first time she used it in the show – that scene still gives me the creeps. As far as Nanoha noticing Hayate's hair, it was more a matter of who was talking – Nanoha's the most talkative character in the series, so... It's also not so minor a detail – Hayate was the only one who's personal appearance changed when she summoned her device, everyone else it was strictly a clothing change, so physical changes are (I'm guessing) indicative of drastic power levels. Anywho, many thanks for your reviews and encouragement, and thank you again for staying with this all the way through.


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